


Tom and Luna a First Person Narrative

by Ysolde



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2015-01-20
Packaged: 2018-03-01 18:27:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 83,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2783237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysolde/pseuds/Ysolde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When my mind returns I still have no body, no hands. I am in a formless shapless place with…words? I look closer and see them, yes those are words. I read them and it is the Diary! I have trapped myself in my own damned diary. Sixty or so years later I end up sharing head space with Luna Lovegood. </p><p>A first person narrative as told by myself, Tom Marvolo Riddle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**November 30, 1942**

 

I have just purchased this diary and am making my first entry into it. I intend that it be a record of my doings and actions, something of a record of my life and perhaps a form of immortality. Thus, I suppose I should begin with my history so far.

 

I am Tom Marvolo Riddle, my mother may be a Muggle named Merope Guant who died soon after my birth, the wretched cow. My father is assuredly a wizard of great power by the name of Riddle. I attend Hogwarts School of Withcraft and Wizardry and am at the top of all my classes. In my spare time I have been researching Salazar Slytherin and the supposed Chamber of Secrets here at the school. I have found hints that this chamber may exist and my ability to speak with snakes could be useful in finding an opening it.

 

 

 

**December 15, 1942**

 

The holiday break is coming up soon and I have requested that headmaster Dippet allow me to stay at the school instead of returning to the Muggle Orphanage. It is a place of filth squalor and horrid people who hate me beyond reason. Luckily I have been able to use my wizardry to keep them cowed and at bay. Sadly I can’t actually use my wand or else the Ministry will come down on me for underage use of magic.

 

The Ministry is full up of stupid cretins who only hear the wealthiest voices and do nothing at all for the populace here. I suspect that many of them are muggle sympathizers allowing their pets to misuse and abuse wizards like myself. The entire establishment needs to be removed and destroyed or at least convinced to regulate the muggles and the muggle born. Not that the Purebloods are actually any better, but if someone were intelligent enough to use that hatred for muggles they could get themselves elected as minister of magic and make some real change.

 

**December 22, 1942**

 

I could not find any information on a wizard named Riddle who attended Hogwarts. Then, I looked further into the records and found that a Merope Guant did indeed attend the school. Who was she? Did my muggle father kill her after she gave birth to me? It sounds like something a wretched muggle would do to a witch. I think she wanted to keep me safe from him and he killed her for it. Stupid muggles they should all be killed!

 

**December 29, 1942**

 

I have found it! The Chamber of Secrets is within my grasp. I am the first being since Salazar Slytherin himself to set foot in the chamber and although it is muddy and filled with disgusting sludge I have found it and Salazar’s books and alchemical recipies. Plus, there is a giant Basilisk down here and I can speak with it once I figure out how to wake it up.

 

What a glorious day!

 

 

**January 15, 1943**

 

I have freed the basilisk and made something of a friend with the creature, but it is task focused. Salazar Slytherin designed it to kill and eat the muggle born witches and wizards and it must do so to survive unless it hibernates. At first I was more than happy to see it killing these students these people who are so very closely related to the filth in the Orphanage or my disgusting Father who must have killed and even tortured my mother. They are the worst creatures in the world, always trying to hurt and kill. I wish I could exterminate them all. Go Basilisk, go and kill them by the command of Tom Marvolo!

 

**February 4, 1943**

 

There is talk about closing the school now and I can’t keep the Basilisk from killing unless I shut the Chamber of Secrets up again. But, I can’t just close it up unless there is something to blame for all of the deaths. What an imbecilic plan this was from the very beginning. Once I knew the Basilisks food source I should not have allowed it to feed here where it would be detected, but my anger and hatred of the muggles made me overwrought. Still, I should have sent it into a muggle town or village, the deaths there would have gone un-remarked by the wizards and witches here at Hogwarts. No one really cares about people who live in some random village they have never heard of.

 

**February 18, 1943**

 

I have convinced Headmaster Dippet that Hagrid’s Acromantuala was the creature responsible for all of the deaths and the half-giant has been expelled from the school and his pet has been destroyed. In the meantime I have closed the Chamber of Secrets and put the basilisk into a hibernating slumber. I am sad to see it go. It was one of the very few friends I have ever had.

 

 

**March 16, 1943**

 

I have been talking with Professor Slughorn about immortality and Horcruxes. A Horcrux is an item that you split off part of your soul into and then if you die you will be able to come back to life. The Professor has told me about what sort of dark and evil magic this must be and I have agreed with him. It is dark, evil and it is utterly necessary. I could do something foolish again such as the Basilisk and I could be jailed or killed for it, especially if I don’t regulate my temper around a muggle born or a muggle. If I could have one or even more Horcruxes, then I would need to fear less about foolish mistakes and live to become the most powerful wizard the world has seen. I could become Minister of Magic and declare war on all the Muggles just like the Germans have done against the rest of the world and Grindlewald is doing too.

 

I wish I could meet him and learn from him, but I think he is being foolish. I think he’ll end up killing many wizards and witches and still lose his war, just like I think the Germans will lose their war as well. Money, manufacturing, and man power are against both of them. They should have been smarter and gotten more people on their side first. Much like I have been gathering the purebloods in school to my side.

 

I have started going by Lord Voldemort and I have told many of them that I am Salazar Slytherin’s heir. I have explained to them how the muggle born are dangerously skewing their world and need to be taken care of. I think I could set it up so that the muggle borns are “responsible” for some horrible things and then even more will be on my side. By appealing to the powerful and suggesting that their place of power is being assailed by the less powerful I can gain a position within their ranks. I can become Minister of Magic and rule.

 

 

**April 3, 1943**

 

I have designed a mark that people who follow me can take up on their arms. It is based on a protean spell and I can use it to summon them, speak with them, or even control them if I need to. This is what Grindlewald was missing if he marked people with powerful magic he could have had more of them forced to do his bidding and never gone to war.

 

 

**May 15, 1943**

 

It has been busy and I haven’t had time to write in this diary. I have been learning more and more about Horcruxes and have some good theories that I would like to try for myself. They aren’t quite ready yet though.

 

**May 30, 1943**

 

I have found out more about my mother Merope Guant. Her family lives in Little Hangleton and I think I will visit them over the summer. Before I do that though I will make this diary into my first Horcrux. When I visit the town I will find a muggle, kill them and split a bit of my soul into this diary.

 

 

**************************

 

“ _Avada Kedavra_ ” The green light hits her and she dies. One innocent girl dead at my feet a killing in utter cold blood and I recite the runes. Ripping and tearing at my very essence. There I feel it a part of my soul is torn from me and I shove it away….then there is a tunnel…a long, long tunnel. I feel nothing and see nothing for hours or perhaps days.

 

When my mind returns I still have no body, no hands. I am in a formless shapless place with…words? I look closer and see them, yes those are words. I read them and I scream….it is the Diary! I have trapped myself in my own damned diary.

 

The laughter of children echoes in my ears…”freak”….”freak”….”freak”…..no! No! I refuse to hear such things I refuse to be such a thing. I AM LORD VOLDEMORT! I scream it aloud I wreak havoc on phantom children in phantom orphanages but the words are still there.

 

It is possible that time passes, I am not sure at all. I have read and re-read my own diary experienced my Hogwarts life over and over again and I realize that I must be the soul fragment left behind. The process was clear the method exacting. I am utterly sure that everything I did was absolutely perfect to make a Horcrux one must rip a part of their soul off and place it in an item. Or is that everything HE did?

 

I watch again the last memories again did I tear away or did HE? It is not my FAULT that I am here…Oh..noo…it is HIS fault. That bastard that pitiful fool or am I the pitiful fool trapped here in this vast expanse of words that I wrote. All my plans for becoming Minister of Magic are gone all I have is my deep hatred for muggles and even that is hard to keep up here in this place.

 

I dream of my mother sometimes and wonder if my father really killed her. I’ll never know what the Guants said to him or is that me? I guess it’s him since he’s somewhere out there and I am in here. Sometimes I think I feel a flicker of pulling an echo of the feeling that happened when I first put myself in here and wonder if he is still going on with the plan to make more. I wonder if he realizes what he’s doing to those other pieces. Leaving them like this, leaving me like this we’ll go insane or maybe he will. I wonder if he/I will ever be put into a book of magical mishaps. I can almost imagine a professor teaching it now, “Well kids creating a horcrux you split your soul, but it makes you insane and that bit of your soul insane. You’ll go stark raving bonkers, but don’t worry you’ll never do anything nearly as stupid as creating the Horcrux to begin with”

 

No, that’s stupid no one would ever teach it. Slughorn was afraid to even talk about them and I had to do research myself and use notes from Slytherin’s books along with other places to even figure it out. I would sigh except I don’t have lungs. I would pace except I don’t have feet. I would sit here except in all actuality I’m not sitting because I lack something to sit upon.

 

. . . Hello?

 

. . . I wonder how long it has been

 

. . . Is anyone there?

 

. . . . . .

 


	2. Chapter 1

**September 4, 1992**

 

How does one start one of these? It seems like it ought to be easy father starts writing and it all gets down on paper and the Quibbler is published. Well, that wasn’t so hard to begin with now let’s see . . .

 

_Hello?_

 

Oh, hello Diary, I didn’t realize you’d be talking back to me. Is that one of your enchantments? Really I hadn’t imagined you were enchanted when Ginerva gave you to me as a first day of school gift. I gave her my Harry Potter trading card apparently it is rare since they only made it when he first defeated the Dark Lord as a baby.

 

_I’m Tom Riddle I was a student here. I guess you could say I enchanted this diary, but it’s more like I accidentally stuck myself into it and could never get out._

Oh, well I’m sorry to hear that. Do you have any idea how you might escape?

 

_I’m not really sure at the moment, but I do have some ideas. Let’s try this: You hold onto the diary with both hands and envision yourself in it._

**************************

 

There she is in front of me, a dirty blonde haired witch with blue eyes and wearing a bottle cap necklace. I don’t think I’ll complain although if it was a dream I wouldn’t be imagining a Twelve year old girl. I may be a murderer, but I’m not some sort of deviant. Anyway, that’s not important right now, “Hello there. I’m Tom Marvolo Riddle and this is my diary.”

 

She smiles at me and replies, “Luna Lovegood and I’ve never been in a diary before. Is it always so white and featureless?”

 

“Well we can read through the entries, but they aren’t terribly interesting.” Yes and we probably don’t want a twelve year old girl to see you plotting murder do we. That would be a bad idea and she just got here. We really don’t want to be alone again do we? Now I’m talking to myself as if I were two people.

 

“That’s a very strange expression are you thinking hard or maybe you have to go to the bathroom?” She says with a curious twinge in her voice. Or at least I take it for curiosity.

 

“Just ahh thinking to myself, but maybe we could both go out of the diary together? I’ll take your hand and you try pulling me along.” I hold out my hand.

 

She takes my hand and I’m out of the diary it feels a bit strange and I’m much shorter. Plus, my center of balance is all wrong. Oh and now I’m moving and closing the diary. No, she’s closing it, “I think that worked. I can feel you in here with me although maybe I shouldn’t talk”

 

She asks me if that is any better and I let her know that it is. Much better, much much better than being trapped in that diary or at least I think so. Then she wants to know if she ought to talk to Headmaster Dumbledore. This is a bad idea, the worst I could conceive of so I inform her that she should not, in fact, speak with Dumbledore.

 

Nor should she find a healer. In fact I am quite happy sitting in her head for now and enjoying the relative non-boring nature of living somewhere that is not a diary.

 

From there she goes to her first class of the day and really it’s terribly simple. I can’t seem to help myself and provide her some answers to the questions. She adds a few strange things and some of the class laugh at her. I’m annoyed by that and look to see who they are and it is everyone in class and especially them Slytherins. That’s annoying we don’t treat our own like that we aren’t muggles!

 

I wish things got better from there, but it was like this Luna had some sort of words on her that said, “Insult me” or something. Wizards behaving just like the muggles in my Orphanage how could they? Where were the Purebloods to show the way?

 

I wish I hadn’t asked that question just a class period later. Severus Snape, the professor of Potions, seems surprised by Luna’s new found skills and keeps her after class. She explains that she’s been reading new books and he seems to accept that telling her to continue to read. When she walks out I see Lucius Malfoy, no it can’t be him, but someone does call him Malfoy. A true pureblood and he spits on her then laughs, “Loony Lovegood, your father’s paper is a rag. My father says we should buy it out and put your father in an asylum and you too Looney!”

 

I can’t even . . . she’s crying now. Wailing and what do I know about twelve year old girls? I tell her to go to her friends, but apparently she just has Ginerva Weasley and she’s in Gryffindor. I want to puke at the very name, but she is Luna’s friend. Not that I usually put great stock in friends, but what other advice can I give here? Kill him? There’s a novel approach, kill him and get sent away or worse. Stupid . . . she needs to be smart not stupid. Release the Basilisk? Again, that’s such a stupid plan it would just kill muggle borns not Malfoy and she could be caught.

 

She’s still crying in a girl’s bathroom when we hear someone’s voice, “Hello?”

 

I would have just taken control of this Luna Lovegood, but the crying made that quite difficult. Besides, I’m not exactly sure what to do with her just yet anyway. Luna sniffles and turns, “Oh hello there.”

 

It’s a girl, maybe a year older than Luna, and she moves close holding out her hand, “Hermione Granger, I cried in this bathroom too once. Then a troll crashed in.”

 

Luna and I take her hand and look at Hermione, “A troll? Aren’t they native to the continent? Not many trolls here, not even in the forbidden forest.”

 

The hand shake is quick and Hermione smiles, she has very white teeth and they are well cared for. I wonder if she’s a Pure Blood and can’t recall the Granger family. “There’s a small group in there and Professor Quirrel, he was Defense Against the Dark Arts last year, let it in as part of a really strange year.”

 

“Oh, that’s fascinating. I’m Luna Lovegood and just started this year. Thanks for cheering me up Hermione. I was just so upset by Draco Malfoy.”

 

Hermione pats Luna on the back and spits out the name, “Draco, that so called pure blooded ponce. Don’t listen to him Luna. He thinks he’s all important because his family is Pure Blood wizard and all that rot.”

 

Well that answers me on that subject. Hermione Granger is either a half-blood or a muggle-born. What sort of world am I in where a muggle born is offering comfort while Purebloods act like that to other Purebloods? It shouldn’t matter what her father’s paper is or anything of the sort Luna is a Pure Blood and they treated her like dirt while this Hermione helped her. What has the world come to?

 

**************************

 

She’s asleep and I’m awake. This is boring I yawn . . . wait I yawned. Right, I hadn’t gotten around to trying this. I can control her body if I want and I am bored so I stand up and quickly put on a robe sneaking through Hogwarts the way I once did apparently more than fifty years ago. I find the library and the history section along with the newspapers.

 

I’d like to know what I/he did after putting me in that diary before we try and extricate myself fromLuna’s head anyway. Grindlewald defeated and the Germans too. I was right about that much. Lord Voldemort and the Deatheaters? Terrorism in the streets and chaos. Everyone wonders who will be next and I’m wondering what the hell happened to my plan. Purebloods weren’t supposed to be scaring the muggle-born like this. I was planning on the other way around. What was his plan to take over? Stupid . . . stupid . . . then suddenly he’s dead. Killed by a baby? Harry Potter killed him.

 

Why was he even there? What plan did he have? I didn’t just want to do “evil” for the fun of it here. I had a plan, I was going to be Minister of Magic after scaring the Purebloods into it and we’d put more restrictions on the muggleborn. The history here reads like a crazy mad terrorist was loose with a gang of stupid thugs. It’s like the basilisk all over again and I swore I’d never do something so stupid again. I swore . . .

 

Maybe I’m thinking about this all wrong he’s not me. I mean sure we share a soul, but I was split off when we were sixteen. Even over the natural course of a life people change and become different. Maybe souls can change or more likely the process was flawed. I smirk and want to call myself an idiot. Of course it went wrong; I wasn’t supposed to be trapped for fifty years like that. I’m not supposed to be in some twelve year old girl’s body and apparently I should be dead.

 

I put the books and newspapers away and head up to Luna’s room. I lie down and go to sleep thinking about all of this and wondering what to do now.

 

Luna’s next class is charms and she has Professor Flitwick. I believe he was a first year student when I was sixteen, but I could be wrong. I don’t exactly make note of such pollutions in Wizarding lines. Mostly the class is about theory and it is terribly boring. I almost have Luna ask him when we’ll actually get to use our wands, but it isn’t worth my time.

 

She heads to her next class and I begin thinking again about my mother. Did my muggle father kill her really? What did she look like? I wish I knew and as I wish I see a memory, but it’s not mine. No, I know that for sure because I never had a mother like this one. She’s blonde and lovely and oh . . . there’s an explosion. She’s covering me with her body and then she’s dying. I hug her tight and beg her not to go, but she’s gone.

 

Not my mother, no, so whose was it? Luna’s of course I’m seeing her memories. I sift through them watching them like a movie. It is utterly fascinating to see her home life was so much different from my own until she was nine. Then her mother died and her father raised her, but it wasn’t the same. Something seems to be missing in this Xenophilius after his wife Pandora died.

 

He becomes strange and goes on about weird things and Luna soaks them up like a sponge. Like a Ravenclaw with a book, because that’s what she is a Ravenclaw. She takes the information and just absorbs it into her.

 

Will she absorb me too? No, I don’t think so, but she’ll know everything about me very soon. Should I just tell her? No, she’ll want to get rid of me after all I killed all those people with the Basilisk and I killed a muggle in cold blood just to put myself in this stupid situation. What to do now though?

 

I could take over her body . . . yes and then what? Down to the chamber and be stupid again? Drain it of life and make myself some sort of new body by draining her? Yes a sixteen year old boy without any prospects and shall I tell all of his followers that I am him? How does that help anything at all?

 

Assuming they believe me I would have to pick up where he left off and I could never become Minister of Magic. I’d never have any power except as the crazy terrorist and someone would try and kill me. They would get lucky sooner or later and I would die, oh he might have made other horcruxes, but they aren’t me any more than I am them. Or at least I think that’s the case.

 

I sigh and realize that she must be asleep again since her chest moves when I do so. I check her memories and see that a week has gone by while I was viewing her memories and thinking about my situation. I suppose that’s not to bad twelve years of memories in a week is better than an actual twelve years. She hardly even noticed I wasn’t there since apparently some part of my mind was answering her questions and assisting her in classes while I was viewing memories.

 

That still leaves me with a question of what I should do though. I can’t just take over what Lord Voldemort, I’ll have to drop that name, was doing since it was stupid. I can’t just drain her and make a sixteen year old boy or older because then I’d have no support unless I wanted to go to another orphanage. Her body shudders at that idea and I feel it in my er her bones.

 

So I can’t drain her and make another me. I don’t want to take over Lord Voldemort’s stupidity. What do I want? I want to rule Magical Britain. I want to be the most powerful wizard in the world. To do that I need an identity and look here’s one right here in front of me right? I can become Luna Lovegood and the only change in my wants would be to become the most powerful witch in Magical Britain.

 

Okay there we are now all I have to do is eradicate her personality. I’ll just go in and . . . Well that’s annoying. I want to do it and yet I don’t. I killed a muggle in cold blood, I set the basilisk on the students and I put those stupid muggles in my Orphanage in their place so how hard could it be to kill one twelve year old girl?

 

Apparently harder than I thought. . . .damn!

 


	3. Chapter 2

Okay so she’s going to more classes and I’m watching with half a mind it’s pretty easy to just loose myself in her thoughts or just zone out, probably something left over from being stuck in the diary for fifty years doing nothing. Good thing too because who wants to be around while she’s showering or worse?

 

Oh and look now I’m thinking about the worse. I knew this sort of thing happened to girls, but actually experiencing it is rather disturbing. The cramps are rather a bit painful and she’s actually bleeding from . . . ugh! _Scourgify! Scourgify!_

 

Apparently it doesn’t work for your mental processes. That’s rather too bad now that memory will always be with me along with her scrawny body taking showers. Oh yuck nothing to see here move along Thom.

 

Back in bed and now I’m very sure I don’t want to take over her body. Why did magic even do that to girls? I wonder if all the female orphans were having that issue. Probably I guess. Still we’re back in her mind while she’s sleeping and what are we to do? Fix that what am I to do. There much better there’s no we here is there?

 

So I’ve established that I can’t take over her mind and kill her. I can’t have her kill her enemies well more like schoolboy bullies really, they aren’t enemies like the muggles . . . well that’s just annoying they treated me pretty much the same way. Were they actually my enemies or just stupid people doing stupid things? I still hate them and really my father so much. I want to head out now and just kill them and yet I expect that they are all either dead or old now.

 

Instead of the stupid muggles I focus on my father. He didn’t just bully and torment, no he killed my mother so he deserves to die. Then again fifty years have passed since I was sixteen he might already be dead. I’ll have to check up on that later and maybe have Luna kill him. No, best do that myself . . . and there it is I’ve gone from not wanting to kill this girl to not wanting her hurt. Time to make some plans to leave her mind before it utterly infects me.

 

Onto the planning phase then I need a body and it shouldn’t be hers. I could take over some other student? Okay how to do that? Have her give the diary to them? No bad idea they might infect me too, but maybe not if they were unconscious. So how do I make them unconscious?

She can’t just knock out her friend Ginny or that nice Hermione girl, well she could, but do I want to be a girl? Not so much there too many weird body issues and such. So we need a boy, but which one? How about Malfoy?

 

How to get him though? Well he’s got to be somewhat intelligent and he won’t want to come near Luna with a ten foot pole. Okay so getting him alone would be a problem. Who can I get alone with her for a while?

 

There’s Hermione again Luna and she are enjoying time in the Library. Luna is telling Hermione about aspects of Arithmancy and Hermione says,”You know Arithmancy already Luna? Isn’t that a fourth year subject?”

 

It is, but come now I am literally a genius. One of the smartest wizards there ever was. I’d probably convince myself better if I hadn’t trapped myself in a damned diary for fifty years, but ignoring that minor mistake I still think I’m a genius. Of course I can’t tell her that,”I love books you know and I think there might be an Arithmantic formula that could be used to prove that Fluttering Fillyflies exist.”

 

She looks at us and I wonder why it’s so hard to see her as the pollution of Pureblood wizardry that she is? So what if she’s been nice to Luna. So what if she hates that stupid idiot Malfoy. She’s muggleborn that should make her my enemy and yet I can’t see her that way. ”You’re a little strange you know that Luna?”

 

She nods with an airy sort of smile,”My housemates have notified me numerous times along with other students. I believe the current nome du’jour is Loony. It’s rather trite and simplistic I feel especially for a Ravenclaw. You’d think that if they were so intelligent they might be capable of better insults yes?”

 

Hermione laughs at that,”You remind me of what it used to be like when I went to grade school. No one wanted to be my friend. I’m a bit lucky that I have Harry, Ron, and Neville.”

 

Oh well that’s interesting she knows Harry Potter. ”What’s Harry like?”

 

She thinks for a moment pushing a strand of brown hair from her face and looking off to the side. For a thirteen year old she’s quite pretty. ”He’s nothing like you would think. Not basking in his fame at all he didn’t even know he was famous until he came to the Wizarding world. He’s brave and nice and I can’t imagine what it was like for him when he faced Quirrel last year.”

 

I turn Luna’s head to look at her and I want to know what happened so we ask. She says,”Goodness where do I even start? Harry rescued me from a Troll or Hagrid’s dragon egg? Well I suppose it started with the Troll because that was connected to everything else.”

 

Luna nods, “Yes I remember you told me about that in the restroom where I was crying. Seems silly now considering how many other people call me Loony.”[/b]

 

She pats Luna’s arm, “Well I’m your friend Luna now where was i?”

 

“The dragon egg.”

 

She nods, “Right well the school was keeping the Philosopher’s Stone for Nicholas Flamel and Hagrid had really wanted a dragon egg. A stranger gave him that egg for free, but not exactly you see. That’s because Hagrid let the stranger know about the one of the defenses on the stone. It turned out that the stranger was actually Professor Quirrel who had released the Troll when trying to breach the Stone’s defenses.”

 

“Where was the stone?”

 

“Oh it was actually down a third floor corridor through some tangle vine and then down.” I see the castle lay out in my mind and that makes no sense. If the Troll was headed for the stone then it wouldn’t have gone to that bathroom. Why did it go there?

 

I can’t quite tease out an answer yet as Hermione continues her story, “So Harry found out about the stranger from Hagrid and about how to slip past Fluffy, a large three headed dog, who was guarding one of the entrances to the stone. Harry, Ron, and I went to Dumbledore's office, only to see McGonagall, who told us that he left for London. She insisted that no one could possibly steal the stone, but we weren’t so sure.”

 

I vaguely remembered McGonagall from the younger classes when I was in school, but that wasn’t important here. No what was important is that she basically ignored the information she was given. Why? It was another link in a very suspicious situation and I thought more about it as Hermione continued her tale, “Well we decided to check up on the stone anyway that night. There was Fluffy and then some Devil’s Snare. After that there was a room full of keys and broomsticks and then a gigantic chessboard. After that was an unconscious Troll and finally seven potions in bottles along with a roll of paper giving clues on which one to drink to continue, noting that three bottles have poison, two had nettle wine, one would send the drinker back, and the last would let the drinker move forward into the next room.”

 

The puzzles were not that hard at all. My suspicions were rising even as Hermione continued to talk, “I drank the one that would send me back and went immediately to Professor McGonagall while Harry drank the one that allowed him to head into the black flame and into the final room. There he met up with Quirrell who was apparently possessed by the Dark Lord.”

 

Did he now? Well I wait for her to finish the story before asking anything more, “Harry said he just had to touch Quirrell and it killed him. He said that Dumbledore thought it was his mother’s love that killed Quirrell and the Dark Lord. The same that saved him from the killing curse.”

 

Luna thanked Hermione for telling her about the entire event and it was time for Lunch. So Luna left to eat while I thought about everything Hermione had said. There was such a thing as a mother’s love, but that alone wouldn’t have saved the boy and it would not have injured me/Voldemort/Quirrell. On the other hand if Lilly Potter had used blood magic then it would be a different story.

 

There was an old blood magic ritual of vengeance that might work. If you used the ritual and stood in front of someone casting the killing curse to protect their victim, then the person would never be able to harm that victim. That fit the clues here and who else would know about all of this?

 

Albus Dumbledore would know. The same person who was Headmaster now and the same person who has always hated me knew about that ritual. Dumbledore hadn’t seen the Orphanage before I had cowed everyone, he hadn’t seen how hateful and evil they were, no he’d decided that I was the bully and treated me like dirt. Then again I was only a half-blood and that made me lesser in his books didn’t it?

 

I didn’t see that then though, no but I see it now. I had no choice but to rule over the Slytherin’s like I did or else they would have chewed me up like wolves against a deer. Maybe I just hadn’t seen the real problem because the muggles in the orphanage had poisoned me against them and their kind. I’m not saying all purebloods are evil now, because that’s the wrong way to go here isn’t it?

 

Still I see Dumbledore and I think about him and what happened with Harry Potter last year. Did Dumbledore set up a confrontation? I think he did. What about the troll though? Well who was the big pawn Dumbledore was using here? Harry Potter was his pawn and would he have wanted his pawn to be friends with a muggleborn witch? I think not.

 

So it comes together Albus Dumbledore, the man I hated in school and the same man who fought me/Voldemort later in life has set up Harry Potter as his pawn. A pawn in a deadly game against Voldemort who he knows has returned. The first bit of Dumbledore’s plan to kill his pawn’s muggleborn friend might have failed, but at the same time it established that Harry Potter was the perfect piece to use against me/Voldemort.

 

I begin thinking about that and about bodies to use. What if I re-released the basilisk? Couldn’t I leave clues for Harry Potter to follow? Yes I could and who would push his pawn into the trap? I knew exactly who would do that.

 

The plan seems perfect, entirely foolproof and suddenly I think of another plan that was foolproof. I’m suddenly less sure I want to go through with this. What if I’m stuck in the diary again? What if Luna is injured?

 

Wait where did that last thought come from? It came from me. Here I am with a plan to get myself a new body and I’m worried about Luna? She’s just my ride, just some stupid twelve year old who picked up my diary. Just the only person I have spoken to in fifty years.

 

I need to think outside of her head. Maybe if I spend more time in the diary I’ll see how stupid it is to worry about her safety. Yes, there we go. I rise in the middle of the night grab the diary and . . .

 

Lost . . . lost . . .crnzhh

 

Don’t hurt the girl . . .

 

**************************

 

**October 1, 1992**

 

_Hello Luna,_

_Please don’t be sad, but I had to leave. I keep thinking about taking over your body and doing some very evil things. I think that I really don’t want to do that. I mean I do . . . well see that’s the problem. I want to do that so it’s best if I stay here so I won’t be tempted._

_Please don’t read the diary anymore._

 

**October 16, 1992**

 

Hi Thom, I know you said not to read this anymore, but I just can’t help it. I want write here and talk to you. You’re my friend and I really had a great day today! Those mean girls were at it again taking more of my things, but I remembered the spell you showed me or maybe it was just in your memories. _Acio_ this thing and _Acio_ that thing was just amazing. My stuff just exploded from their chests and their drawers and all over and headed over to my bed where a swish of my wand put it all away.

 

I think I might have scared them and everyone was calling me Loony more, but I have my stuff again. Even that little stuffed bear. So they might be a bit scared and think I’m even crazier, but it was worth it. . .

 

Why won’t you talk to me?

 

 

**October 16, 1992**

 

Making another entry. Please talk to me. Please, please, please, please, please

 

_Stop! Enough don’t whine and oh gods are you crying again. You’re dripping all over the pages._

 

Thom! Yay!

 

_Not yay you foolish girl. You need to not do this. Didn’t you read my last entry in here? I left it for you to see._

Oh yes, I did, but I just figured you were being affected by blibbering humdingers. But, I used special mint aroma to get rid of them.

 

_If I could roll my eyes I would be doing it right now Luna. I want to take over your body even if it is scrawny and female. I want to set the basilisk free and kill Harry Potter so that I can become Minister of Magic and the most powerful Wizard in the world. You need to stop writing in here it is dangerous for you and stop reading it too. Don’t allow it any closer to you._

_I can’t believe I’m saying this, but tell Dumbledore about it. Ugh . . . if I could vomit I would have just done so. I’m done playing his games; this is what he wants me to do. I know it, he wants me to confront Harry and somehow he’s stacked the deck against me. I can’t win, I can’t break even, I can’t even quit playing his game . . . or can I?_

 

I’ll go Thom, you’re not feeling well, but don’t worry I’ll be back.

 

 

**October 18, 1992**

 

Father has a really nice article in the Quibbler about the rotfang conspiracy. You should read it. Well I guess you can’t in here, but I can write about it.

 

_No, it’s a bogus theory please don’t. Just go away Luna, writing in here isn’t safe for you. Not safe because I could end this existence in here. Oh yes end the boredom end the ploys and plays and games. No more games. No more Tom Riddle to push around . . ._

Well who else will I talk to Ginny and Hermione are all the way over in Gryffindor and none of the girls in Ravenclaw seem nice to me. I read about you by the way. You were head boy and you protected the school from Hagrid’s Acromantula attacks! That’s pretty amazing, why do you think you’d try and take my body over.

 

_LEAVE . . . go . . . stay. Stay and I can end it . . . no . . . don’t just look at the truth. Yes see the truth . . . truth . . . killed . . . them . . . . look at the older entries and you’ll see. Then maybe you’ll stop tempting me. Tempting me with an end to this existence . . . tempting me to play his games . . . stop . . . don’t . . . stay . . . want . . . go away scrawny girl! Scrawny no good . . . friend? . . . no friends . . . scrawny girl._

 

I’ll have to eat more; do you really think I’m that scrawny?

 

_. . .go read older entries . . . stay . . . white awful white . . . nothing here . . . just me . . .take the boy . . . leave the book . . . go . . read entries . . . stay . . . go_

 

Okay Thom, I’m going to read through those diary entries like you told me to.

 

 

**October 20, 1992**

 

You did some really bad things Thom, I’m sorry I stayed away. I just had to think about it you know and well killing people is wrong you know that right? Maybe you don’t . . .

 

Still I can’t just throw this diary away that would be a lot like killing you or worse. Did you see all your random scribbling while you were stuck in here? It’s all jumbled and weird. I don’t think it’s good for you to stay in here. I wish I knew what to do though . . .

 

Won’t you talk to me?

 

_Throw me away Luna . . . kill me . . . please kill me . . . I want to die . . . white and white . . . take the boy . . . friend Luna . . . LUNA friend . . . it’s for the best . . . keep the diary and take you over . . . kill you. . . no . . not kill Friend lUnA . . . KiLL mE . . . Basilisk . . . free basilisk . . . get boy . . . white . . . white . . . leave . . . must leave . . ._

I’ll leave you be for now Thom, but thanks for replying.

 

Your friend,

 

Luna

 

 

**October 25, 1992**

 

_Mine . . . mine . . . I have her . . . we’ll take her and no . . yes . . . plan . . . plan . . . KILL! DIE! Kill me? Yes . . . yes . . no more white . . . no more alone . . ._

 

 

**November 1, 1992**

 

I just want to talk to you. Ginny and Hermione are my only friends and they are in Gryffindor. The other Ravenclaws think I’m weird and still tease me, but nothing has gone missing since the incident. I could really use a friend.

 

_In you now . . . chickens dead?_

What, oh yes someone killed all the chickens.

 

_. . . hard think . . . part in you part here . . . more to do . . . white end the white . . . chamber . . . the chamber is where it will all end . . ._

 

**November 3, 1992**

 

_Almost there . . . kill the boy . . . kill me . . . end it all . . . no more . . . end . . . dend . . . Friend?_

 

**November 18, 1992**

 

Something is loose in the castle some of the students have been petrified. No one knows what it could be, but someone says The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Did you have anything to do with this?

 

What? Why?

 

_Basilisk . . . Dumbledore . . . dend rend bend. . . gaze maze . . . someone is responsible . . . Dumble dore puts pawn into play . . . play the game . . . Voldemort . . . I am him . . . piece . . . free the creature . . . let it out . . . your choice . . . kill me . . . bring diary to Dumbledore . . .Harry will die . . . I will kill others . . . you are only one who can stop it now . . . Friend? Kill me please? End end end end end . . ._

If I give him the diary you’ll die. You’re my friend. . . I know you did bad things and are doing them now, but I can’t let you die.

 

_Then bad things will keep happening. You’ll see Luna, I’ll show you and you’ll see the truth. Truth . . . thurT . . . TRUTH . . . I Kill! End me . . . end . . . no more . . . white . . . white . . . end . . ._

 

**************************

 

My mind fits slowly back together as the part that was in Luna and the part in the diary merge back together. I think about the previous time and my mind recoils away from it. No more diaries and no more of this existence. I touch kneel down over her body, well more like my spiritual essence does. Somehow it’s led back to this. The game is on and here comes Dumbledore’s pawn. He is pushed across the board without even seeing the master strategist behind him. He slides into the room and is dropping into the muck. He’s coming closer now and I can see his features. He has brown hair, green eyes, and a scar on his forehead from where I/he used the killing curse on him.

 

He sees me kneeling over Luna’s body. I brush one of her blond hairs out of her face and I smile. She’s fine just fine. I haven’t hurt her and I won’t hurt her. Our new player on the other hand, well he’s not my friend is he? No, but I can be polite, “Hello Harry”

 

“Voldemort!” Well he’s rather brave, all the papers were calling me/him he who must not be named or the Dark Lord. Though I suppose he’s already fought against Quirrel/me/Voldemort before. So maybe it isn’t false bravado. No he doesn’t look the type to be false at all does he?

 

“Not exactly Harry, I’m Thom Marvolo Riddle.” I write the letters in the air and rearrange them. Oh look aren’t I just so clever making my name into an anagram. “Known as Voldemort to some, but really shouldn’t we know each other as we truly are?”

 

I smile at him, “Both orphans and both pawns of Dumbledore. Why don’t we put bygones aside and shake hands? I can enter into your mind and make you the most powerful wizard the world has ever seen!”

 

He’s shaking his head, “Dumbledore, I trust him.” Really stupid there isn’t he? Trusting the man who put you down here against me?

 

Well I didn’t think he was going to be so stupid as to shake my hand so I guess it’s time to get into the spirit of things. I use parseltounge and, “Speak to me Slytherin greatest of the Hogwarts four.”

 

Salazar Slytherin great founder of Hogwarts and apparently he was just as stupid as an old man as I was at sixteen. Vain, egotistical, and a sociopath we’re so much alike that he makes me ill. “So Harry here’s the Basilisk. I hope you brought a Rooster?”

 

He looks pale and I order the great beast to kill him. Then I sit down and pat Luna’s head. “Once he’s dead you’ll see what needs to be done. You’ll see no more white, no more games. I win and I stop playing.”

 

I have to admit from my seat that he’s actually pretty impressive. Not sure I could have fought a Basilisk at fourteen and oh he gets help from Dumbledore’s flaming chicken. Nice work too without its eyes the basilisk can only kill him with its deadly venom or by slithering on him or dropping a bit of ceiling. Oh no looks like he dodged that and the other and where did that sword come from?

 

Oh it looks like he’s killed the Basilisk but, not without getting bitten. He’s crawling this way with the fang that was in his arm held in hand like a weapon. Here he comes closer and closer and almost to the diary, rather heroic all in all. I let him have a _Stupefy_ right next to the book and oh look here’s the flaming chicken calling out a cry and dripping tears on him. I let it have a blasting curse, but it’s gone before the spell hits and I just hit Harry with another _Stupefy._ So now what?

 

Well he’s unconscious and I want a new body. Simple really I move over to him and just as I get there Luna begins waking up. Of course she does, because here I was about to fix everything and take this body, but no Luna’s waking up. I would sigh, but again, the lack of lungs prevents it. “Hello Luna, I suppose I ought to apologize, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do it. As it is there’s Harry Potter now on the floor next to this lovely diary. I think I’ll kill him and take over his body now.”

 

“Oh, so you lured him here using me as bait?”

 

Smart witch she’s got it in one or at least some of it. “I did and now I’m going to go ahead and take over his mind. It will kill his personality, but I will get to be the most powerful Wizard in the world and apparently The Boy Who Lived as well. Much better than being stuck in a diary wouldn’t you say?”

 

Her eyes open wide and she becomes very serious, “I’m going to have to stop you Thom.”

 

I nod to her, “I quite agree and luckily for you there’s a Basilisk fang in young Harry’s hand. He almost made it to the diary, but not quite. So just pick it up and stab it into the diary and there we are.”

 

I sit and pull young Harry into my lap now. He seems so pathetic like this; I put my mostly ethereal hand on his scar and feel a strange twinge and utter filth, like a disgusting black vile thing. I want to vomit; I want it gone removed from existence. The sickness twisting from him has my wand out and I whisper the killing curse. Luna jumps and screams, “No Thom!”

 

Don’t know what came over me there, but oh look he’s not dead. What a strange circumstance that strange disgusting thing in his head must have been an evil spirit or . . . I would blanche if I had blood to do that with and then look at the diary and the connection is obvious. Look Thom you’ve killed a bit of your own soul. It was disgusting and vile so you killed it. What does that say about you hmm? While I’ve been thinking Luna has begun wailing and I shout, “Hush! He’s not dead Luna, not yet. Notice how his chest is rising and falling, so don’t you worry you still have time to stab the diary and kill me before I take him over. I was just removing another bit of Lord Voldemort’s soul. Something a bit like me I expect and really two of us couldn’t live in there.”

 

As I touch the scar pondering the fact that I just killed a bit of myself I think maybe I could live in this boy. Would it be all that hard to simply be Harry Potter and yet there’s Luna staring at me. My shoulders slump and I continue talking to her, “Nasty business there. I expect Lord Voldemort was casting the killing curse with the expectation that Harry’s dead body would make an excellent soul anchor point. I wonder how Harry survived that?”

 

She doesn’t seem to know the answer, but I figure it out easily enough. Stupidity . . . Lord Voldemort somehow missed the blood ritual. He is an utter and complete idiot, not saying that I wasn’t either, but then again I was sixteen when I screwed up what’s his excuse?

 

Luna has not been idle though and the Basilisk fang is in her hand now and she’s looking at me with tears in her eyes. “I don’t want to kill you Thom. Please, just let him go, let him go and return to your diary we’ll just go back to being friends again.”

 

Twelve year old girls aren’t very pretty, especially not when they cry. There’s nothing about them that entices the eye of a sixteen year old boy at least not yet and the crying surely does not improve things. She’s also being terribly illogical. “You know we can’t go back now. I’m a danger and a threat and it could happen again. Not to say we aren’t exactly friends, but well I’m just not the sort to make friends. More like people I can use on my way to power. So, best get stabbing Luna.”

 

I realize the contradiction in my words, but maybe she doesn’t. I hope she doesn’t, but she’s still hesitating. I should just go through with it then. Just take over Harry Potter and what? Nothing comes to me because she’s sitting there watching. If I take him over now I destroy the only thing I have come to value. I can’t even think why I value it, but there it is Luna is my friend and somehow I value that. Merlin why won’t she just get on with? No more stupid plans, no more crazy ideas. No more stupid friendships that ruin all my plans. It will all be done with and I can go into nothingness.

 

“No! There’s another way! I know your still part in here!” She grabs the book and her body slumps to the floor. Well I wasn’t expecting that now was I? I put Harry Potter on the ground and his head thumps a bit. I smile a bit at the idea that I beat him while the other me/him never could. Then again is it much of a success to defeat a fourteen year old boy? Mental note I need more intelligent plans and goals and why in Merlin’s name am I trying to save that silly girl anyway?

 

I travel to the book where Luna has placed herself and I need to extricate her. Well, it’s not going to be that hard is it? I arrive in a beautiful green forest where Luna is apparently petting a creature that is some sort of impossible squirrel badger thing with a crumpled horn. “What is that thing?”

 

“A Crumple Horned Snorcack, I’m not quite sure if they actually exist, but in here they can.” She says with perfect honesty.

 

“Right, well just what were you expecting when you did this?” I glower at her.

 

She smiles back, “You to come get me, because we’re friends. I knew you’d come get me out and not hurt Harry.”

 

I sigh, although no breath actually moves since I am not a physical being. I’ve probably mentioned that before, but it really bears repeating since it’s certainly annoying to want to sigh and be utterly unable to do so. “Fine, I didn’t kill him. This was apparently yet another stupid idea in a long line of stupid ideas. You’d think that for being a brilliant wizard I might have a few less of them.”

 

She laughs at me, “Oh Thom you’re funny. I’m going to leave now and help Harry up, you can come with me and everything will be alright.”

 

Ah the innocence of youth. Harry knows about the diary now, but I don’t say anything even as she moves close and hugs me which is weird because in here we don’t really have physical forms, so it was the metaphor of a hug maybe? I’m not sure and it isn’t important because she exits the Diary and goes back to her own body. While I exit the diary and manifest as something of a spirit again thinking that Harry should be waking up soon and even if this was a stupid plan I expect that he’ll do what Luna was unable to get done. I’ll just need to wait a few moments.

 

Sure enough, a few moments later, there he is just getting off the ground. “Oh hello Harry seems you made it out alive after all. You should thank Miss Lovegood here and Dumbledore’s flaming chicken.”

 

“Let her go!” He shouts at me and I shake my head. He doesn’t even get it. I already have let her go; I’ve let her go again and again. I can’t rid myself of her and I can’t even make her kill me. I planned this entire stupid scenario out just to kill him and finally get her to go away. Not that I’m going to tell him any of this, but really where is his brain?

 

“I’m fine Harry. He’s letting me go see.” She moves to him and shows him that she is indeed okay.

 

He looks at the diary and the Basilisk fang right next to it. I think it’s time to work on him some more. He looks tired and angry so, “It’s not the end Harry. As long as I’m in here I’ll keep trying to get you. I’ll kill your friends and all the mud bloods to get at you. It will be just like your parents again.”

 

There we are a young boy’s anger is fanned. I suppose they are easier to manipulate than twelve year old girls. Something to note if I had actually expected to survive but, since he’s over the diary in moments and begins to stab without listening to Luna as she screams, I doubt I’ll have a chance to need to note it. I smile and wave to her letting her see my mouth as I say, “I’m sorry Luna. You were my best friend.”

 

Hmm what do you know? I actually meant that and I guess it will be my last thought too. Luna Lovegood you were my best and only friend.

**********************************************

 


	4. Chapter 3

Pain! That's something I haven't felt in a very, very long time. It really hurts! I feel Luna clutching my pages, which is in and of itself a disturbing sensation to go with the pain. Then, I hear her crying I feel the pain and the wetness of her tears as they drip on my pages. The pain is the biggest sensation it is powerfully vibrant and slashes through my pages while my ink runs out in rivulets. Her hands press harder into my pages begging me not to go. I feel her hand on my own, dragging me pulling and yanking. Doesn't she know it hurts?

There's more pain and flashes of my memories and then black, black, and more black. At least the pain is gone now, but if I'm dead it's actually quite boring. I sigh which is more a metaphorical statement than an actual thing. I'm sure I've mentioned that from before since, again, I lack an actual body. Perhaps this is like limbo where parts of souls go and wait for the rest, no that can't be right. I mean I killed another one of my parts right? Shouldn't he be here with me?

Maybe that should be more of a sort of I should be here with him, or possibly we should be here with us? It's rather annoying to try and figure it out you know. Again I am annoyed with myself for making me. Wait no is that right? I'm annoyed with myself for putting myself in this situation. Much better, I guess although I suspect that language wasn't really designed to explain what happens when a soul is split apart and each bit goes its separate ways.

All in all I think I will prefer the darkness to being any part of Lord Voldemort. It did seem like a good name, but I had intended to use it as a backdrop to my plan to become Minister of Magic. Voldemort was going to be the guy all the Purebloods bowed down to in secret meetings and we'd look down on muggleborn and maybe kill some muggles in towns that no one cared about. Then I'd pass laws and make the world better for myself plus I'd have that whole army of loyal followers and I would live forever. Over time I could have ruled the entire magical world.

I'm thinking that the whole plan was flawed to begin with, but oh well too late now right? Maybe I should have just shot for Minister of Magic or maybe I should have seen what became of the Pure Blood children. If I had thought my plans would make kids like Draco Malfoy exist I'd have killed his father and ended the Malfoy line. Or not, maybe I was just a stupid sixteen year old kid. Now there's a news bulletin for you "Sixteen year old boy is stupid" they can play it at the local theatre before the nickel movie or however much a movie costs these days.

Wait I hear something or do I? No I certainly hear something. Oh and there's light over that way. Paradise maybe? "Are you okay dear?"

Oh yes feeling quite fine and dandy. "Mrphrghll phrgm glurp"

"Here try this shall we?" It's a nurse what's her name? Well I'm sure she has a name, but we'll just go with Nurse for now. She feeds us a potion and well that does feel better.

"Oh thank you, I do feel better." See I can even talk in coherent sentences. I decide not to go with any other languages I know right now as that would just confuse the situation.

"Oh good, your father will be coming to see you shortly and your friends wanted to see you too." What friends? My lackeys are all dead and where am I?

I look around and Luna's right here with me. Why Thom what a genius plan you had! Now, instead of dying you're stuck in a twelve year old's body. Fine just fine, I'll just take her over and be done with it. Stupid girl deserves it and . . . and. . . .

Oh fine, never mind it is utterly clear that I will not be killing her or taking over her personality for my own. So, where was I in my thought process? Oh yes what friends? The people who used to follow me around are long gone, apparently onto terrorism and then bribing officials to get out of their deeds, so I'm at a loss.

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, and her brother show up. I'm pretty sure it's her brother they share a passing familiar sort of look. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure they are related his face has a sort of dim look about it as if he might be hard pressed to add two plus two while Ginny seemed to actually have some intellect.

Harry has taken our hand, "You okay Luna. You were very upset when I destroyed the diary. I had to though he was going to take you over."

Well at least I convinced someone, even if it was just Harry Potter. "What happened after?"

I really wanted to know and so did Luna. "Well you passed out and I used the _Levicorpus_ spell to bring you along and out of the chamber. We ran into Professor Lockhart and found out he had been stealing people's memories and taking the glory of their deeds for himself. He wanted to use the whole Basilisk incident to further his career and erase my memory, Ron's, and yours too."

I wanted to ask who Ron might be, but Harry took a breath and continued, "He didn't realize the wand he was using, Ron's wand, was fixed with spellotape and when the Professor cast his memory erasing hex it backfired on him. So, now Professor Lockhart doesn't remember anything at all."

We blink and look at him. What sort of insane luck is that? As a baby the killing curse fails because I/Voldemort messed up on making him into a Horcrux and Lockhart's spell backfires at just the right time? I'd calculate the odds, but I just sigh. We sigh that is and it's rather nice to feel the air going in and out of our lungs. "Well I suppose I should thank you Harry. I still think Thom had something good in him though."

I wouldn't go so far as "good" maybe more like a death wish. A slight inclination to prefer my own death over that of the only, non-giant basilisk, friend I have ever made in my life? Sounds a bit selfish to me actually and probably not dictionary definition of "good" still, it's the word we used. Harry didn't seem to know what to say to it.

Neither did Hermione, Ginny, or her brother. At least until Hermione said, "I don't know Luna, I mean he took over your body and tried to kill people. Sure, everyone seems to have been lucky, but he was out to kill all of us muggleborn because we aren't pureblooded wizards."

Sure, she says that like it's a bad thing! I wanted it to kill Draco Malfoy too you know, that utter arse, it's just that Salazar Slytherin got to the Basilisk first so I couldn't have it kill Malfoy because he was a pureblood. Well we shouldn't actually say that I suppose. "I just had a feeling that he liked me, that we were friends. I never had any friends before and it was very nice to have one."

Now she's hugging us, it's soft and yet a bit bony. It feels odd a bit warm and Luna reminds me that we ought to put our arms around her to complete the whole hug process. So we do that and it becomes a bit warmer and less bony somehow. Oh look Harry's hugging us too and Ginny Weasley, now it's a bit awkward, but still warm. I believe the human body is thirty six point eight or so degrees so it does make sense that it would be warm. Finally it ends and somehow I feel a little better is it because the hug ended?

Luna informs me that Hugs make us feel better. I would have gone with awkward and warmer, but fine we'll use that as a basis for better, especially if we're feeling cold. Now that the hug is over I believe we should ask the obvious question "Does this mean we're friends now?"

Everyone laughs and we are assured that we are indeed friends. We decided to ask another question, "If we are friends now do you think I should know this red haired boy's name? I think he might be your brother Ginny?"

He looks like someone hit him on the head. I guess he never thought that someone wouldn't know him? I can't see why though. Luna had met Ginny at the beginning of the year and they had a class or two together. Ginny had asked Luna some questions about the class and Luna helped her out. There had been mentions of a "brother" or was that "brothers" I think it was the plural form. Either way, names had not been associated with them and we were only relatively sure that the red headed boy was Ginny's brother due to superficial resemblances.

The red haired boy was introduced as Ron. The same Ron, I gathered, who had fixed his wand with tape and I was even more convinced that he was an utter dunce. Before Luna or I had a chance to remark on it the group was shooed out of the infirmary by the nurse. Soon after that Xenophilius, Luna's father, came in. Apparently there were different rules for visiting friends and visiting relatives. It made some form of sense we supposed. The man gave us a hug and we assured him that we were in perfect health and that we would see him once school was done for the year. This hug was also warm and a bit less bony, but personally I much preferred the one from Hermione Granger before other people piled into it. Something about that one had a pleasant feeling that felt nicer than the rest.

Then Luna pointed out that we could help her father by writing up an article for his paper, so we offered to do that. Maybe we could do something along the lines of "I was possessed by an Evil Diary an Insider's view". I was relatively sure we could make something up and it wasn't as if his paper was known for excellent high quality journalism. More like the reverse actually. Our or I mean Luna's father left and we rested.

We were released from the infirmary and sent to visit The Headmaster. Apparently the password was "gumdrop" and I learned something about Albus Dumbledore that I hadn't known before. He liked sweets, not exactly a world shattering revelation, but it was something new.

His office was set up with numerous magical items most of which were doing nothing more than looking impressive. His desk was large and imposing and the chair on the other side of the desk was set so that he was looking down at us. I suppose his star and moon robes were intended to lessen the effect just a little bit, but it was more like they were shouting out that he was so powerful that he need not cater to anyone else's fashion sense.

He gave us a sort of smile, something I think was intended to look grandfatherly. This in and of itself was an imposition, he wasn't our grandfather and he had no right to assume any sort of familiarity with us. He just pushed it onto us and said, "So Luna, you have had a hard time of things."

It was a statement of fact, not a question so we stayed silent. He pulled out the diary and by Merlin it looked like a dead animal. That was me? I almost died and yet I didn't feel nearly that afraid. Dying wasn't scary more like incredibly boring. Well that was more like almost dying, but we suspected that actual dying wouldn't be much worse. "This was Thom Marvolo Riddle's diary and he took over your mind?"

His eyes twinkled and was that Legillimancy? It was indeed so we tossed him out of our mind like yesterday's newspaper. He looked a bit surprised, "Did he teach you things Luna? Maybe dark things?"

"He told me that crumple horned snorkcacks probably don't exist and that there probably isn't a Rot Fang Conspiracy. I said, I didn't mind, but I liked to pretend they did sometimes." We used Luna's airy sort of voice. That's a voice that suggests that we may not be exactly all there in the head. The one that makes Ravenclaws and other people call her "Loony"

"That's it then, nothing else?" He gave us another concerned grandfather sort of look.

We shrugged, "Nothing terribly important I don't think. I don't remember setting the Basilisk free or writing on the walls though. So he probably did some things that I never saw."

Technically that was true Luna wouldn't remember those things and I myself avoided thinking about them since I had ended up splitting myself into two parts and going a little bit insane. As Dumbledore continued to speak I wondered if the insanity was partially due to being separated from Luna. "Well, do be careful, and I think you've learned a lesson about magical things that think for themselves yes?" We looked over at the sorting hat and wondered if he even recognized the hypocrisy inherent in his statement and the hat sitting there.

"Yes, sir I think I did learn a lesson." He nodded and sent us off.

More than one lesson I think. The first was never to attempt to be in a diary and a mind at the same time as it utterly messes your rational thought process up. Well at the very least the diary was destroyed so we wouldn't be tempted to do that again. The second lesson was that I was apparently incapable of performing actions that I might think Luna disapproved of. Mostly that seemed to mean that I was going to have to figure out exactly what she did and did not approve of or at least end up apologizing later. The third lesson was one I was learning even as Luna and I walked towards her room. I quite enjoyed being in Luna's head and maybe, just maybe it wouldn't be so horrible to stay with my friend.

I did wonder exactly what I was supposed to do with these other people who were now classified under the term friend, but mostly it seemed like I could ignore them. Well some of them at least. Hermione continued to enjoy spending time in the library with Luna and together we were more than happy to share some extra information with a mind that was intellectual instead of the general idiots and fools who walked around the castle.

There were tests to make up and classes to attend. However they were all exceedingly easy so I spent time studying my favorite subject. That subject was magic and the Dark Arts. I know the name is associated with evil, but it's also associated with blood magic. If Lilly Potter could craft a blood ward against the Killing Curse then what else might be possible?

We didn't get as far as I would have liked due to a lack of decent reading material in Hogwarts and somehow time had passed to the point that there was an end of the year feast where Gryffindor won the school cup due to a last minute change in points. When that happened I stared at Dumbledore wondering just what his plans were.

Then I realized that it was somewhat possible that he had discounted the possibility that I survived. Could I possibly ruin some of his plans now? Maybe I could in a petty sort of vindictive manner, but then again I think that's all I'm left with at the moment. Some bit of fun at his expense mostly because simply killing his biggest pawn isn't the right move. I'll have to think about that some more.

Luna and I took the Hogwarts express and her father picked her up. The first thing I did was start some research on Dumbledore and what he had done since 1942. I wasn't getting much from it in a way of understanding his plans though. So I passed the time helping Luna writing some articles in the Quibbler. Circulation increased some after that and a number of people wrote in to praise Junior Staff Writer Lovegood for her dedication to truth and journalistic integrity.

I wondered what was so hard about going to the Ministry of Magic, getting the information, and then publishing the facts. It seemed easy enough to me, but apparently it was entirely new to everyone who was reading the paper. Then I picked up an issue of the Daily Prophet and no longer wondered.

If the Quibbler had been a rag then the Prophet was a rag that had been used to wipe after using the toilet. I suppose it had been the same when I went to school, but such things were beneath my notice then. Then again a lot of things had been beneath my notice. How much time had I spent getting my Slytherin house in order and making them into my minions? How much time did I spend peddling Pureblood propaganda? So much time that I ended up believing my own lies?

It was a harsh realization and not one I wanted to dwell on. So we spent some time learning Norse runes, learning some blood magic rituals, and new spell casting techniques. We researched some of my/Voldemort's history and we wrote letters to Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and Harry. The last was apparently expected from friends during the summer months.

Ron and Harry weren't very good with keeping in touch, but Luna felt that boys were just like that. I had no response for her since I had never been the sort to write many letters anyway. Hermione and Ginny were, on the other hand, much more prolific with their letters. So we kept in touch with the other two witches one pureblood and one muggle born.

We didn't attempt to contact any of my/Voldemort's followers because honestly it didn't interest me anymore, especially not the whole terrorist leader thing. Not surprising either since I had way too many reasons to avoid following in his footsteps now. The biggest of which was my decision to continue dwelling in Luna's head.

Hermione asked us if we would like to visit and we decided to go ahead. Thus, we visited Hermione at her house and I must say that 1994 Muggle London was vastly different from 1942 Muggle London. Everything was faster and more fascinating there were even phones in people's cars now and it seemed like everyone owned a color television. We visited the Museum of Natural History and the nearby Museum of Un-Natural History. I honestly couldn't seem to get over all the changes on London and the rest of the Muggle world. It was like the Muggles had remade their entire world into a new image in only fifty or so years.

Not that there weren't issues in their world including their own terrorists, some of whom had apparently bombed a large building in America, but it was very interesting to see. We wizards were living behind this world secretly and that began to make sense to me. I had been tormented and fought back against muggles in my orphanage, but they were nothing compared to the muggles now. High powered rifles, nuclear weapons, laser guided bombs, maybe a ward could defend against the weakest of these things, but not the strongest.

I checked in Hermione's encyclopedia and the population was in the Billions. It made my plans to rule over Wizarding Britain seem like a child ruling over a toy castle. The Muggles had even gone to space; they had stepped onto the moon and returned. They had a station orbiting our planet and a probe called Voyager that was at the far corner of the solar system. All of this was done without magic and what had we accomplished? What had pureblood's accomplished with our vaunted principles and knowledge? I thought about it and realized that the answer was easy we had accomplished very little in any real comparison.

What I learned at the Granger household changed my world. It changed Luna's world too I think. The Wizarding World was amazing and spectacular, but so too was the Muggle world. Maybe there was a place for both to exist? What wonders could we accomplish if we put our minds to it?

Luna and I dreamed about it, we dreamed about colonizing the other planets and becoming the first Solarian Empress. Ships powered by magic and muggle means would head towards distant stars in our name. Our rule would be terrible and cruel and then we woke up, which was too bad because it was a nice dream.

The week at the Granger's was educational and Hermione hugged us at the end of it, which was really nice. I had to admit hugs were beginning to grow on me.

Not to be outdone Ginny offered to let us stay at her house as well. We were able to walk over from our own house and shared a room with the Red haired girl. She seemed to talk endlessly about two subjects Harry Potter and Quidditch. We avoided these conversations and met her many older brothers. Ron was also keen on Quidditch as well, but he also liked Wizard's Chess so we played a game with him. He was actually half decent at that, but it just made me wonder why he was such a dunce in every other way.

Fred and George Weasley were twin brothers and seemed quite disconcerted that Luna and I could tell them apart. At one point they even asked us not to do so in front of their mother. Honestly though all someone had to do was look at their magical cores and they would see the differences. Honestly why didn't their mother just do the seven hour ritual and cast the runes that would enable her to view magical cores with a single spell from that point on? Either that or she could have simply cast an ancient spell that hardly anybody left alive knew. Knowing she had done neither of these two things was depressing, especially since it was just one more example of how little wizards and witches actually bothered to study beyond their classes.

Percy Weasley was also in residence at the household, but we didn't get much chance to meet him. There was also an older brother named Charlie who was doing some job elsewhere and yet another even older brother named Bill in Egypt. Considering the chaos of the Weasley house I didn't blame either of them for leaving as soon as they could.

We also learned in this visit that Ginny's mother was something of a smothering sort and she seemed to wish to hug us any number of times. Her hugs were much too warm and although I think she was trying to be comforting, but it seemed more like overcompensating. Ginny's father, on the other hand, was mostly at work. He seemed to be an average wizard working in the misuse of muggle artifacts department.

That last bit was quite fascinating and when we had a chance we ended up asking him any number of questions about how wizards and witches had misused muggle artifacts over the years. If he thought we were asking these questions with an intention to misuse the artifacts in our own ways he didn't show it.

Time passed much too quickly and we left for home again. Apparently Harry Potter visited the Weasley's after we did, but we didn't hear much more about that. We were a bit busy in fact because after our visit to the Weasley house Luna and I took a little trip to Little Hangleton Village. I had already known that the Gaunt family was related to Salazar Slytherin before my first trip here. On that trip I had murdered a muggle girl in cold blood and tried to use that murder to put a Horcrux in my diary. I ended up putting myself in the diary, or perhaps I should say he ended up succeeding and thus I was born. I'm sure I've mentioned it, but being left to live in a diary was not exactly a pleasant experience. In point of fact it had driven me a bit insane something that only now seemed to be somewhat rectified by living in Luna's head.

So we were in the Village trying to find out what happened here. A bit of research into the Ministry of Magic's archives showed that Morfin Gaunt, the brother of Merope Gaunt went to Thom Riddle Senior's house and killed everyone there with the killing curse. Strangely enough he did it the same day that I was trapped in my own diary. That couldn't have been a coincidence really. Reading the history from the Ministry I think he used Morfin. There's no proof, of course, but I'm interested in walking down his path to see what he did. To understand maybe or perhaps I just want to laugh at his stupidity.

Better to laugh than to cry yes? Because if I sat back and thought about every idiotic plan he/I came up with there would not be enough tears. Better to laugh at him and maybe learn more. So in the spirit of learning Luna and I head into the Gaunt shack. Inside the shack it is cold and dark. It feels a bit like the web of a spider waiting in the dark and brooding. The walls are peeling and the rugs are dilapidated. The cupboards are falling apart and there is a must sort of smell coming from any number of leaks in the roof which have caused the wood to mildew and rot. The Gaunt shack is the very definition of dilapidated. It is a horrible place left to rot alone and in silence, but even so there are in the remains little reminders that this was once someone's home. That some long time ago this place was inhabited by humans instead of rats and cockroaches.

I doubt the Aurors who inspected the crime actually did much here. Mostly because, according to the Ministry report, Morfin gave himself up. Said he couldn't stand that Riddle had raped his sister and left the child while Morfin was in Azkaban. A confession like that and why bother investigating right?

We move further into the shack and note that it has also become filled with malicious traps and wards. I'm quite impressed with the ward work if I do say so myself. Still, they are not too difficult for me to remove and we find a blanket and a bed. It will have to do I think and this ritual will barely tell us much of anything. Still, Luna insists that we press on to find out more and so we do. Find out more about this person I could have been about this other bit of my soul that killed my father and left my uncle to fall for the crime.

With all the wards and traps taken care of we prepare the ritual and spill some blood into a cup. Blood magic is "evil" except it's also damn useful. Luna agrees with me that it has just been misunderstood because of the uses some people have put it to.

The blood in the cup shimmers and shows an image, it's me or more like almost me. I'm still sixteen not long after I trapped myself in the diary, but there's this look in my eyes that creeps me out. Insanity? Madness? I'm not sure and I don't like it at all. He/I am casting spell modifying Memories and then pulling Morfin's ring from his finger. The image fades and I feel very uneasy.

No, not uneasy, ill sick, twisted. There is a cancer eating at me and it is in this room. Luna feels it too and we can't help but dig at some bit of the floor until we find a secret panel. It is covered with more wards, but we easily take care of them. The panel opens and then we see the ring. Oh Merlin it tears at me, it fills me with loathing and disgust. I know what to do right now, just like I did with Harry Potter a swish of our wand and, _"Avadakedavra!"_

Green death hits the ring killing the thing inside. Killing something that was a part of me? I don't care, I don't want that. Maybe I thought I did want it may be somewhere in my puerile teenage mind I was that sick, but Merlin I don't want to be. I laugh at myself oh yes, much better to narrate your life as if people were listening to you. I laugh and tell Luna and she smiles thinking that it is much better; I can't honestly say I disagree.

The ring seems to be destroyed, but the stone set into it has survived. A strange symbol is on it and Luna remembers it from " _Tales of Beetle the Bard."_

The book isn't history, it's some sort of Wizarding fairy tale book. I think I remember the story. In it there were three brothers Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus Peverell. They came to a river which was too deep to wade across, and built a bridge using magic. Death appeared to congratulate them for their ingenuity, and offered them rewards (or so he said; his real intent was to give them traps which would be their undoing, because he felt cheated by their survival.) Antioch asked for a weapon that would always win any battle, a weapon worthy of one who had cheated Death. Death snapped a twig off an elder tree and gave it to him — the Elder Wand. Cadmus asked for something to give him power over Death, for he had lost his loved one before this encounter. It was also an attempt to humiliate Death. Death gave him a river stone, which, by the terms of the deal, became the Resurrection Stone. Ignotus, however, did not trust Death, and asked for something that would allow him to avoid Death. Death was trapped by his words, and handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility. The brothers continued on and went their separate ways.

Time passed. Antioch provoked a duel with a wizard he disliked, left him for dead, and afterwards boasted of his unbeatable wand. He was killed that very night by someone who had heard his boasting, and wanted the wand. Cadmus found misery when he brought his former lover back to life with the Resurrection Stone and learned she had been happier dead, ultimately committing suicide in order to truly join her. Ignotus hid from Death his entire life using the cloak until he finally reached a ripe old age, and he gave the cloak to his son. He and Death finally "met as old friends," and departed as equals.

The symbol on the stone we see is apparently the same symbol in the book. Honestly I never thought Wizards had children's tales until I read that book and now I think that maybe they still don't because here is the stone. Huge warning lights are going off in my head now and we breathe in and out slowly.

Today we decide not tempt magic stupidity shall we? Let's put it in a pack using something not our fingers to touch it and get it looked at by . . .

Well there's a problem. Dumbledore isn't exactly our first choice now is he? He wouldn't trust us and we don't trust him. As much as Luna wants her mother back and I'm sure I could use it for something, but this is deadly dangerous. Think about it Luna, think about it Thom even the Killing Curse didn't destroy it. Now that is a truly scary thought. This bit of gem work wasn't even hurt by the deadliest of the unforgivable curses. We carefully find something to put it into a pouch and head out of the Gaunt Shack.

The return to Hogwarts was nigh and so we packed our things and father, that is Luna's father, took us to the train station. The stone was left at Luna's house behind blood wards and notice me not charms.

We get the stone off our minds by examining the train to Hogwarts. A better example of muggle technology working with wizardry could not have been provided to us. The Hogwarts express was just a beginning of what could be done, but we didn't get to appreciate it nearly as much as we wanted because we needed to board the train. We put it on a list of things we needed to do at some point and then found a compartment. We ended up in a compartment with Hermione and Harry along with a sleeping man who was clearly in need of better clothing. When we entered we hugged Hermione and then Harry when we met them and then sat down.

Ron entered the cabin soon after that he held out his hand and so we stood and hugged him. Apparently this was not the exactly appropriate greeting as we recalled moments after hugging him. So we ended the hug and sat down he sat as well with his face a brilliant shade of red. Hermione and Harry looked at us and we said, "I had assumed he was to become one of our friends. Are hugs the wrong manner to greet friends?"

Hermione shrugged, "Well I guess. I hadn't exactly thought about it. I think he was expecting a hand shake though."

We looked over at him with our patented airy sort of gaze and he blushed even brighter as he looked away. Almost as if he had been caught taking something that didn't belong to him. "It's . . . ahm . . . okay she can ahh . . ."

Before he got very far there was a fracas as Hermione's part kneazle cat attacked Ron's robe pocket. "Ow! Hey call that beast off!"

Hermione took Crookshanks in her lap and petted him to calm him down. We looked at Ron, "Usually kneazles or part kneazles are somewhat okay with the friends of their owner. I wonder what he sees that leads him to think you are false."

"I'm not false. He's just bloody crazy!" A very defensive response if I have ever heard one. I was amazed that the other person in our compartment could sleep through this. I was also surprised that Ron suddenly had an extra magical core that wasn't his usual one.

"Ron how did you get another magical core? That could be why the cat doesn't like you"

He rolled his eyes, "Oh please Luna give it a rest won't you. Kneazles and extra magical cores what's next your Snorcacks again?"

Well that was rude of him; he could deal with it on his own then. Hermione on the other hand instead of responding to Ron asked, "Part kneazle?"

It was easy to know because he had been suspicious of Luna and I when we were visiting at least until we promised that we wouldn't harm Hermione. After that he had been pleasant enough. "Oh yes, he's definitely part kneazle. Suspicious of anyone or anything that's not trustworthy and highly intelligent."

Said animal preened as we complimented him. Since we were on the other side of Hermione from Ron we rubbed his ears and Hermione said, "Oh, well I did buy him in a magical pet shop and he's simply gorgeous. Now that you mention it I can see the kneazle in him."

"You don't actually believe that do you?" Ron dropped into the conversation.

I looked at him and said, "Care of Magical creatures page 235 look it up. Lion like tail, larger than normal cats, highly intelligent. A full blooded kneazle would have longer ears and a more leonine tail as well as more fluff, but honestly Crookshanks is clearly at the very least half kneazle." Crookshanks purred even louder at that and seemed to enjoy being lavished with even more attention as Hermione and I petted him.

Ron gave us both a look that suggested he thought we were entirely insane and that was fine by me because I personally thought he was a moron. Harry didn't get involved looking a bit embarrassed by the entire situation and unsure of what to do.

As we pet Crookshanks with Hermione we pulled out our book and pointed out what features were kneazle inspired. She nodded with us and then we went onto looking at other magical creatures while I spent a bit of time thinking about familiars. I didn't want a snake anymore, but Luna's idea of a rabbit wasn't making me excited either. So, we decided to go without.

Hermione and tried chatting with Harry, but he wasn't as interested in out visits to both Museums in London. He and Ron ended up talking together while Hermione and Luna caught up on everything since we had parted. As we chatted suddenly I could feel an icy chill of cold and memories from the Orphanage when it was at its worst hitting me. I knew exactly what it was and I knew exactly what could kill it.

Unfortunately _Fiendfyre_ wasn't exactly a spell Luna could use right now. The cheering charm on the other hand was something we could cast and so we did. Even as the creature came to the window and the sleeping man woke up whereupon he cast the Patronus spell and sent the Dementor away.

Harry spoke up saying, "What was that?"

"I'm Remus Lupin and I'll be the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher this year. What we saw outside was a Dementor. They feed on happy memories leaving you only with the sad or frightening ones and if allowed to they will steal your soul with a kiss."

Hermione spoke next, "Why would it be here?"

"The Ministry thinks they can use them to capture Sirius Black." He responded and yet something in him looked less than trustworthy to me. Then I heard the story and here it was again Sirius Black was a follower of Voldemort and out to kill Harry Potter. Set to guard against him were Dementors.

From what Professor Lupin was saying the Dementors were sent by the ministry. Were they and who had a hand in ensuring they would be around? This Sirius Black wanted to kill Harry and here was Dumbledore playing the game again. Instead of myself or myself/Quirrell/Voldemort her was setting the board against this Sirius Black.

I decided not to get involved this time. I wanted to see or find out how it played out. Harry spoke as we were thinking about that, "What was the spell you used to get rid of the Dementor?"

Lupin explained that it was the Patronus charm and seemed to know a bit about Dementors, but didn't know that _Fiendfyre_ can kill them. The Patronus charm works to chase them off, but trust me I know how to kill the things the problem would be using the dark spell in front of people. It really seems such a shame that so many decent and powerful spells are classified as dark which meant that Luna and I would have to be careful when casting them so as not to draw too much suspicion.

As we left the train we ran into Ginny. "Oh you sat with Harry! Wow I just couldn't get up the nerve to be in the same cabin. Oh and you were rescued by him too last year. Oh I totally forgot to ask about that when you were staying with us. I'm so jealous you know that?"

I think she went on and on, but thankfully we had to split off to Ravenclaw table. As we sat there thinking about it we realized she had actually said she was jealous that Luna had been rescued by Harry Potter. Can you even imagine that? She was jealous that she hadn't been in mortal peril.

I wondered if there was some method to remove someone from your friendship at that point. Luna wasn't sure and vehemently disagreed with my plan to put Ginny in mortal danger which might accidentally just end up being well mortal. That was entirely too bad, because the young red haired girl was entirely too annoying and the world would be better off with one less of her. Right there I personally decided that she was not my friend even if she hung around with people who might be such as Hermione.

Thus it was determined that Harry, Ron, and Ginny were just Luna's friends. After all they did not have anything to merit them to me. Soon after that decision we were at the Sorting Ceremony. There it was announced that Dementors would be guarding the school because Sirius Black was at large and potentially intending to kill Harry Potter for the Dark Lord. It was clearly overkill to use packs of Dementors outside of a Children's school just to catch one man, but it was just piling up evidence for a new theory I had in my mind.

In addition to the Dementors it was announced that Remus Lupin would be our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. From what I understood via Hermione he would be the third in just as many years. I had seen firsthand that he could defend against Dementors, but if he was actually any good at really defending against Dark Arts, then he'd still be a teacher next year.

That was the end of the ceremony and we all went to our respective dorms. Ah Ravenclaw tower how lovely it is to see you again. If I had known they had their own library I'd have tried harder to be a Ravenclaw when I started out. Then again Slytherin was much better for recruiting fallible purebloods whose only redeeming qualities were their ability to follow orders. Someone really ought to have explained the dangers of inbreeding to them, but that someone wasn't me, especially not when I had needed gullible followers.

We were only in second year now and couldn't take any elective courses yet, so Luna and I decided to learn Swedish while Luna and I excelled in our classes. Hermione had little time to visit with us although we were able to socialize on the weekends again. Sadly all Ginny wanted to do was talk about Harry Potter while Ron and Harry weren't terribly interested in the study sessions and extra education that spending time with Hermione ended up as. Yet another reason to keep them off of my list of Friends which now numbered a total of two.

"Ugh I really need to get back to my Arithmancy homework." Hermione said as we began our normal Saturday socialization.

"Do you have it with you?" She nodded and pulled it out. "Show me what you're having issues with."

"Here you see the equation isn't making sense." We looked where she pointed and considered it.

"It's written wrong here." We took the book and flipped through to find a different section. "See according to this here you can't have a negative in that part of the equation. I suspect it was meant to be a plus and someone printed it wrong."

We fixed the equation and then solved it. Hermione stared at us, "Luna that's amazing. How do you even know these things?"

Partial truth here, "Oh I spent a lot of time studying this already. I just enjoy knowing things."

"Well I'm taking Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures along with Muggle Studies." That plus her regular course load sounded nearly impossible.

"Well if you need any help I'm more than willing to do so. I know a lot about Arithmancy and Ancient Runes along with Care of Magical Creatures." We put a hand up and moved a wisp of hair from her face. Her brown eyes were almost mesmerizing.

"Thank you Luna. I will certainly need as much help as I can get." She hugged us and then we continued to study.

Sadly we only saw Hermione on Saturdays and the Ravenclaw house was filled with people who seemed to look down on Luna. Some of that might have had to do with her earrings and necklace and some of it was probably because Luna was far and above the best student in her year. We didn't bother trying to understand them they weren't worth our time.

Having friends in different houses was rather a gigantic pain. So we ended up doing some research on magic and the wizarding world. Mostly we had already determined that a large proportion of wizards and witches were idiots. They got themselves killed in moronic ways, they invented foolish games, and they seems to lack any form of sense. Magic seemed to make up for that by allowing many of them to actually survive even after a colossal blunder. Usually this just seemed to lead them into a more colossal blunder that finally ended their life.

That made me think some more. Grindlewald had a decently good plan, but it did have flaws. He got pretty far and then he was stopped as stupidity piled on stupidity and he lost the war. He got very powerful, but he was stopped. Yet at the same time the British Ministers of magic have all done utterly idiotic things and survived. Somehow Britain didn't fall apart unlike Grindlewald's magical empire. In the same vein Gilderoy Lockheart wanted to become famous and from Luna's memories and some research he had indeed become famous. However, that fame was at the expense of others. He wiped their memories and claimed their deeds for his own. Tighter and tighter he wound his lies until he came to Hogwarts and it all came undone. Voldemort, my other self the person I would be if I hadn't trapped myself in a diary. He'd gone totally off the wall, but still managed to get close to ruling Magical Britain anyway and then suddenly a baby takes him down.

Back to me again, I hatch a scheme to get Luna to basically kill me and I almost kill Harry Potter doing it. But I never realized that I was splitting some part of myself between Luna and the Diary or that I would end up insane. Harry Potter basically killed me because of that, except Luna dis something utterly Idiotic and somehow saved my life.

There's this connection again magic seems to incite stupid schemes and yet some people survive them and others don't. What's the difference between the people who survive and the others? The ones who survive had the motive to help other people or what might be called "good" motives. So there's a scary thought "good" intentions somehow help you survive and "bad" intentions somehow help ensure that your stupidity will get you in the end.

Where does that leave me? Dead I would say except for Luna. I'm not sure it counts as a get out of stupid intentions free sort of thing, but maybe we can keep experimenting with magic. Find out more about the very base nature of its workings. I'm sure I've said this before, but hey these are my thoughts and I'm allowed to repeat myself.

In addition to studying the link between stupidity and magic Luna and I also decided to read up even more on muggle history and science too. While they seemed to have their own colossal blunders and deaths due to ignorance it seemed as if later generations built on that knowledge anyway. Radium killed Madame Curie, but she inspired others to follow her while using safer techniques. So many people who, due to their muggle nature, lived in a world that acted within recognizable laws. Unfortunately those same laws were broken by Luna and I everyday by using magic.

In one of our study and social sessions with Hermione she spoke out, "I can't believe it! Harry and Ron are just refusing to speak with me."

That was new, "Oh why is that?"

"Harry received a Firebolt from an anonymous benefactor and I told Professor McGonagall about it." Okay that made sense Hermione told her head of house about a potential danger to Harry. He should have been thanking her right?

Apparently our confused look had Hermione continuing on, "He and Ron are upset because he could have used in in a Quidditch match. But, honestly he has a dark wizard out to get him I can't understand why they are so angry at me for keeping Harry safe."

Luna and I threw up our hands at that point. "I don't even have words."

"Then there's Divination! The professor is just arghh!" I do believe Hermione was actually pulling her hair now.

Neither Luna, nor I believed in Divination. Strange creatures that no one had seen yet there was some possibility that they might exist, but some way to predict the future? I thought it was utter rot and Luna spoke up for us, "You know it's just the old fashioned version of Arithmancy. Back when Arithmancy began it was seen that you could predict magical effects and so people branched out and started using it for divination. When Arithmancy itself didn't work they tried other methods like tea leaves and palm reading, even star gazing."

Hermione looked at us as we spoke and she said, "The professor didn't mention any of this."

I shrugged, "Well that's because some people believe it actually works and there have been a few of what they call true prophecies. But, most of those prophecies that were called true were what I think of as self-fulfilling. Basically some idiot believed the prophecy might be true and either tried to prevent it or worked to make it happen."

"So they made them happen purposefully or even accidentally?" Oh see there was the bright witch who was my friend.

"Exactly and with the rest well if you're vague enough you can claim to be correct or you can just make prophecies and lots of them then when something comes true point to one." We smirked at the end there.

"Well I'm stuck in that class though." She sighed.

"Just make it up and then take something useful next year or just drop it and enjoy some free time. You look like you could use it. How do you even sleep?"

Her schedule had to be crazy full and she must be working herself to the bone with all the classes she was taking. She shrugged and said, "I'll be all right Luna."

We hoped she would be.

Another study session came into our life and apparently Hermione and Harry were over their argument as she spoke, "Oh I met a hippogryph and he was simply lovely. Harry rode him you know?"

"He does like flying doesn't he? I hear he's the best seeker McGonagall has ever seen?" I may not even like Quidditch, but I do hear things.

She nods, "Yes, I barely do well at all on a broom comparatively. I don't think I could have even tried riding a hippogryph, but it didn't matter."

She sighed, "Oh why not?"

Luna suggested patting her shoulder so we did that. Apparently it caused her to sigh, but it did elicit more information as well. "Draco of course, he was rude and stupid and so Buckbeak scratched him."

"Leave it to that utter imbecile to ruin classwork for others around him. Merlin I can't believe he even remembers to breathe." Hermione laughed and she looked much less sad. I would have to work on figuring out how to provoke that reaction since her smile was simply stunning and her laugh was a delight.

"You know he hangs out with Crabbe and Goyle they're like his henchmen and they are even stupider than he is." She said this with a rather serious face.

Even so it seemed utterly impossible, "You know Hermione just because I believe Crumple Horned Snorcacks exist does not mean you need to tease me about other impossibilities."

There was that laugh again, "Oh Luna! It's true they exist and they are even worse than Malfoy when it comes to stupidity."

Merlin that boy was even denser than Ron and I thought Ron was a moron. The possibility that there were two Hogwarts students even dimmer than Malfoy seemed entirely impossible and yet Hermione hadn't lied to us before. "I trust you Hermione."

The study session ended with Hermione telling us more about the two and their escapades into the realm of utter idiocy beyond what I had ever considered possible. Unfortunately Draco Malfoy had powerful parents like Luscious and the whiny little brat complained to his father. Hagrid ended up teaching about less dangerous animals and Buckbeak, the hippogryph, was chained up.

In the meantime Professor McGonagall continued to teach transfigurations and sparked some interest in us. The interest was more related to the Professor than the class though, because she was actually in school with me way back when I was sixteen and now she taught transfiguration. Luna and I wondered what had happened to her in the intervening years, but apparently she hadn't done all that much other than fight Voldemort.

Professor Snape sneered at us as if making perfect potions was something he didn't wish anyone could do except himself. We began cutting corners and using little tricks I had picked up from Salazar himself and I'm relatively sure it just made Professor Snape even more miserable.

Professor Sprout continued to teach Herbology and Flitwick charms. We also had astronomy, but in general I would say we learned from these teachers and others, but that would actually be a lie. Even Professor Lupin's class was basically boredom writ large for someone who had literally practiced much Darker Arts than even the highest level classes would know how to defend against. Mostly we just passed our classes with perfect marks because we knew the material and in the meantime we continued to practice magic that was far more advanced.

The year was mostly interesting for the time spent with Hermione, "I need to find more on magical Trials. There must be something that can get Buckbeak off."

There wasn't the Wizarding world would kill the animal now. Nothing could be done and I had few words of encouragement for her. Then she added, "Plus Ron's rat has gone missing and he blames Crookshanks for it. Can you imagine that?"

"No, I really couldn't I think he'd have better taste than to actually eat a rat. Especially one as old as Ron's. Maybe it just curled up and died? After all rats only live about ten years usually." It seemed odd that his rat was so old anyway. I almost asked Hermione to see if she could find it and bring it to me for examination, but it was Ron's rat and his stupid problem. Let him deal with it.

If only he'd stop annoying Hermione about it. "Oh Luna! I feel like it's all hopeless." She threw her arms around us and began to sob. If I have not mentioned it before allow me to reiterate there is nothing pretty about a crying girl. Not even one as normally pretty as Hermione.

We put our arms around her and hugged back. Sure we could go blast the chain off the hippogryph, but people would know it was Luna. The same was true with transfiguration or really any other spell over where the creature was held. Anything we might do could lead back to Luna and if someone examined her wand they might just find spells we didn't want them to find. As much as Hermione was our friend it just didn't seem worthwhile to get in trouble for some stupid animal.

Not long after that we heard that Buckbeak had escaped and that Sirius Black had fled from Hogwarts with Aurors on his trail. The Dementors were sent away and the final feast of the year was held. I don't think it would surprise anyone if I mentioned that Gryffindor, Harry Potter's house, won the house cup yet again.

We later found out that Hermione, Harry, and Ron had a pretty interesting adventure relating to the gryphon, but Luna and I didn't get to hear much about it. It seemed to involve the fact that Sirius Black was innocent of informing me/Voldemort about Harry's parent's location. It also involved Peter Pettigrew who was the actual traitor and a rat animagus. Then it involved Professor's Snape and Professor Lupin, who was actually a werewolf, along with the Pettigrew situation.

I was sure we would get more information about it over the summer and yet at the same time we had mostly avoided any part of it. Whatever scheme Dumbledore was running he missed us entirely this school year. To me that showed he wasn't nearly as great a planner as perhaps he thought. It suggested that Luna and I were now free of his plots and could begin to think about working on other things.

Notes: Thanks to Byakugan 789 for a number of corrections and plot holes that needed to be fixed. This is a better story because they helped me out.


	5. Chapter 4

 

Sumer was much more exciting than the school year had been. Luna and I stayed with the Granger’s in the beginning of the summer. Not much time had passed since the school year so the first thing we did was ask Hermione what we missed from the very end of the school year.

 

She looked at us and said, “Well we really didn’t find out most of this until the very end of the year and by that I mean after the Saturday I saw you last. I know we wanted to sit together on the train ride back, but you know how it was.”

 

We knew indeed the train ride back from Hogwarts was always worse than the train ride to school somehow and we’ve missed being with Hermione each time due to the number of people in her compartment. “Yes, it’s almost like the Heliopaths have come and stolen everyone’s ability to make a decent amount of room.”

 

Hermione chuckles and says, “More a matter of having Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville along with a few other Gryffindor’s in there. You could always just come in and I’m sure we could make room.”

 

We didn’t know the other students and that was the main issue for me. Would they be put on Luna’s list of friends? Would they become like Ron and Ginny who we had nothing in common with and generally didn’t bother speaking to us? Hermione continued speaking while we thought about the difficulties involved with socializing with new people. “Well it’s so hard to figure out where to start. Hmm I guess we should go with the point I left after you comforted me. I still just couldn’t leave it well enough alone so I spoke to Ron, Harry, and we went to make one last effort to save Buckbeak.”

 

“Yes I do recall.” Luna may have been more interested in the hippogryph’ s plight if he had been an endangered species or one she was hoping to prove existed and from our point of view there had truly been nothing we could do that was within the law.

 

As we wondered just how Hermione had avoided legal ramifications for freeing a dangerous creature she continued on. “We heard the execution or at least we thought we did and then Scabbers, Ron’s rat, reappeared.”

 

“Reappeared? I hadn’t even recalled that the thing went missing.”

 

“Oh yes, I didn’t mention that? Well at some point last year Ron thought Crookshanks had eaten his rat when he hadn’t. Although, now I almost wish he had!” She picked up Crookshanks s and began petting him behind his ears letting him know he was a good cat.

 

“Probably have given your pet indigestion really.” We petted the cat as well as we sat next to Hermione and listened.

 

“Better indigestion than well, let me continue before it gets too horribly confusing.”

 

We smirked a bit and said, “A bit late for that, but I think I follow you so far.”

 

She went on, “Well Ron chased his rat and caught it only to be attacked by a big black dog. The dog dragged Ron through a tunnel under the Whomping Willow into the Shrieking Shack. Harry and I followed after them and there we met up with Professor Lupin and the dog.”

 

This was starting to become interesting and a bit disheartening. Where was I? I was back in the school thinking it couldn’t be helped that the stupid hippogryph was being killed. Listening to Hermione it was clear Luna and I should have been there with her. She continued relating her tale as we berated ourselves somewhat, “So Professor Lupin explained that Peter Pettigrew had actually been the secret keeper for the powerful Fidelius charm cast on the Potter household. Everyone thought it had been Sirius Black, but that’s not the case.”

 

I remembered that from the papers and a small bit of research we did for an article in the Quibbler, “So you’re saying that Peter gave up the secret to the Dark Lord and then Sirius Black came to the Potter household just after it was destroyed and since Sirius knew that he hadn’t been the secret keeper he went right after Peter?”

 

Hermione nodded and said, “Yes and the black dog was Sirius Black. You see Peter cut off his finger cast a powerful spell that killed the muggles and got away. Sirius thought Peter had killed himself along with the muggles on the street and was caught by Aurors. He went to Azkaban for years until he saw a picture of Harry and Ron with the rat in a paper.”

 

“The same rat your cat went after if I do recall.” She nodded and I remembered seeing that extra magical core on the train. Ron had been rude and I decided to let him deal with it. I guess that extra core had been the rat and that Ron had been carrying him. It also explained how a rat could be so old. All I could think of now was that if I had actually bothered paying more attention to the Weasley idiot I could have nipped this issue in the bud.

 

“Right Sirius, Peter, and Lupin had been good friends back in Hogwarts with Harry’s father and the other three became animagi to help Lupin out when he transformed into a werewolf.”

 

That was not exactly a brilliant plan, but I guess it worked somehow. “How did that work?”

 

Hermione shrugs her shoulders and says, “I’m not sure, but Peter was a rat, Sirius a dog, and Harry’s father was a deer. They were great friends in school. Sirius even became Harry’s godfather later in life.”

 

Did he now? I kept that bit of information in reserve and said, “So Sirius was after Peter and professor Lupin was helping and there you, Harry, and Ron were in the shack yes?”

 

I tried not to let my own annoyance with myself show after asking that question. Who knew how much help Luna and I could have been. Merlin it was one day! Just one minor decision and look what happened. “Well just after Professor Lupin told us eeverything about Peter and the rest Professor Snape arrived and tried to apprehend Sirius Black. Harry used a stunner on him though and then Professor Lupin and Sirius Black transformed Peter, from Scabbers, back into human form then they were going to kill him.”

 

Good riddance to bad rubbish in my book. I was hoping they killed the rotter even as Hermione says, “Harry stopped them though. He said his father wouldn’t have wanted that. So they bound him up and we all started back to Hogwarts. Unfortunately Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf and became violent because he missed a dose of wolfsbane.”

 

While I hadn’t been very familiar with Animagi I was more knowledgeable about werewolves. I knew that the wolfsbane potion it allowed lycanthropes to keep their mind while in animal form. There seemed to be little likelihood that Lupin would actually have forgotten to take it. “Did he tell you he forgot?”

 

She shakes her head, “No the headmaster said that later on, but anyway Pettigrew escaped and Sirius Black prevented Professor Lupin, in his werewolf form, from attacking us. Then some Dementors approached, and we lost consciousness.”

 

All of this had happened after we said goodbye. It was almost like a sledgehammer telling me that I was an utter fool to not have helped her with that stupid damned hippogryph. “You woke up in the infirmary and were told about Sirius escape then?”

 

Hermione blushes and then says, “Well no you see Harry and I ended up using my timeturner to go back in time to help Sirius escape and freed Buckbeak.”

 

We stared at her a few moments. She had used a timeturner to go back and help Sirius and free Buckbeak? What had she even been doing with a timeturner? Really, who in their right mind gives something like that to school girl? “Who gave you the timeturner?”

 

“Professor McGonagall because I wanted to take so many classes it was really the only way I could do that she said.” Did she now? She gave Hermione Granger a timeturner just to take more classes? Surely she knew that someone could horribly damage themselves if they accidentally created a paradox. Magic would possibly fix it, but surely not without greatly harming or killing the fool.

 

We stare at Hermione for a moment there. “Did she give any warnings?”

 

“Just to schedule things so I didn’t see myself. She also said to get sleep twice since I was repeating each day.” I remember McGonagall barely from when she was a child below my year and then from my classes with her and a very little bit from some research I did on her. That plus from what Hermione had said about first year. None of these bits of information told me much about her except that she was Dumbledore’s second here in Hogwarts and that she had fought Voldemort.

 

My attention is drawn back to Hermione’s first year now. Professor McGonagall had ignored the warning about me/Quirrell as well. Then two years later she gives Hermione the timeturner. More is starting to come to me now. Harry is a pawn, but he’s not the very first pawn and not the only piece in this game. I remember thinking about that blood ward Lilly created and I begin to wonder if she made it herself or if a certain old man gave her a book with the ritual. It fits so very well together now more pieces of the puzzle slide together. On one side we had Voldemort/me mad and evil. He becomes a terrorist and on the other we have Albus Dumbledore. Does Dumbledore risk himself? No of course not. He sets it up somehow so that when Voldemort comes to Harry Potter’s house and kills a muggleborn witch he dies in the process.

 

I am betting that Dumbledore knew about the Horcruxes even then and I know Dumbledore has few feelings about the muggleborn so Harry’s mother is more than an acceptable sacrifice. Harry’s father was just in the way, but better to have him gone if you want to really craft your own pawn right? Voldemort /I die except Dumbledore knows he/I am coming back. In the meantime this Sirius Black goes after Peter Pettigrew. Peter escapes as a rat and Black is put away in Azkaban. Do I believe that the same person who knew the blood ritual also knew Peter was the secret keeper? Absolutely I believe that.

 

Later it all comes to a head again and Hermione has a timeturner she can use it to save Sirius Black or to help him escape before someone uses Veritas serum on him? If the time turner creates a paradox and it kills the witch who uses it then it’s just another muggleborn to him. A girl who he tried to get rid of at least once before this? No not just the one other time.

 

It was the third attempt to kill her because the basilisk had turned her to stone too. I hadn’t intended that and hardly even realized it because of my own issues there, but isn’t it interesting that she’s almost died in Albus Dumbledore’s school three times now?

 

“Luna, are you alright?”

 

We smiled, “Oh sorry Hermione I was just narrating.”

 

“Narrating?” She looked at us rather confused.

 

“Yes, I narrate my life. Basically I talk to myself in my head as if there were an audience listening to me.” Hermione laughed at that, and then realized we were serious.

 

“I guess it’s a bit like snorcacks, or the Rotfang conspiracy right?” We nodded to her because, in a way, it is. Being a bit strange is part of sharing a life with Luna Lovegood. Of course now we have even more to think about especially since we are now patently sure Dumbledore is apparently out to kill our friend.

 

I would love to say that’s his only plan, but I don’t think it is. Hermione’s death is just some part of whatever he has planned for Harry Potter. I begin to think more on that and then back to our theory on magic from last year. People who did stupid things and were “good” were protected by magic and those who did “evil” weren’t. But, what if you hardly used magic to promote your agenda?

 

When I was in Hogwarts Dumbledore hated me. Why? Not because we shared a similar philosophy on muggleborns and muggles, but because I was willing to be violent. He didn’t want to see people hurt, he saw “goodness” in people and had I not heard him tell me he was “acting for the greater good”?

 

I think somehow he knew the same things about magic that I was just now finding out. So how does he get away with it? I see it in shining colors almost five simple words, “The ends justify the means”

 

We shake our head and for a moment I think to myself that I am utterly biased. I’ve always hated that man so I’m seeing things, yet at the same time everything fits right back into my puzzle. For whatever reason Dumbledore is using Harry as a pawn and part of his plan includes trying to get Hermione killed.

 

Am I paranoid? Maybe I am and yet my friend has been in danger every year because of Dumbledore. I suppose someone might think it was incompetence, but not me. Once is an accident, twice could be coincidence, but three times is a direct plot. He is no fool; he is not the gentle old man he seems to be. Someone else might think differently, but not me, no not me at all.

 

I try to think of some way to tell Hermione about this, “Hermione what do you think about headmaster Dumbledore.”

 

She smiles at us and says, “Oh well he’s a great wizard you know. One of the very best I think.”

 

“You don’t think he’s made any mistakes or such? I mean with Quirrel and the Basilisk and that timeturner maybe?” We look at her a bit pleading.

 

She chuckles, “Oh Luna, everyone makes mistakes even the best of us. Maybe he makes mistakes, but he’s a decent wizard, maybe even the best there is.”

 

There it was my friend was blind to him even as the old man was trying to get her killed, but I couldn’t blame her really. His façade’ was better than any I had ever seen possibly better than I had realized back in school. There was no way a fourteen going on fifteen year old girl who normally trusted authority would see what I saw and Luna couldn’t explain it to her without revealing things that would certainly endanger my own existence.

 

We stayed the week and wished we could stay longer. Having time to sit and chat with Hermione was pretty amazing. We discussed ways that magic could improve the muggle world and ways that muggle inventions could improve the wizarding world. In all honesty Hermione Granger was the most beautiful and intelligent witch I had ever met. Luna and I really couldn’t get enough of her presence.

 

Time with Hermione came to an end and we avoided going to the Weasley house of chaos this year. Honestly once was more than enough for an entire lifetime. We did send letters back and forth with Hermione and Ginny until the school year began again. That is despite the fact that Ginny’s letters had become much less frequent and when we did receive them they continued to be filled with useless dreck. We also sent letters to Harry and Ron, but as usual they didn’t write back.

 

On one of our nights home we were composing a new article for the Quibbler on the Arithmantic potential of a spell that could be used by one wizard to control a dragon. We weren’t quite there on the final Arithmancy and were hoping to visit a Dragon Preserve to test the final movements we’d report more on it after the next summer when we did that. When we were done with our article we went to bed and dreamed about hugging Hermione. We turned to her and Hermione kissed us on the lips and then down our necks, then she pulled off our shirt and we were both naked and kissing. It was disturbing and yet fascinating.

 

The next day I reminded Luna that we really needed to ensure we went to the bathroom before bed. Honestly we were almost a fourteen year old girl now and we shouldn’t be wetting the bed, not even a little bit. Luna protested that it wasn’t what I thought and suggested that it had something to do with biology. Lovely, just lovely isn’t it bad enough that our uterine lining sloughs off and we bleed every month? What in Merlin’s name was this new phenomenon?

 

Luckily it didn’t happen again so I put it out of my mind as we continued our articles in the Quibbler enjoying the ability to simply put out factual information. In fact we added another column under Luna’s byline that was basically “Lies you heard in other papers” It wasn’t terribly popular, but it was at least a source of truth to inject into the world.

 

**************************

 

This year we went early to the train station to spend extra time examining the Hogwarts express. We had hours to look at it and passively scan and examine it while the engineer and the others worked. There were very few total charms and wards on it along with muggle engineering that followed a basic principle of heating water to make steam which would then be used to power the engine and move the wheels. It had a coal tender, but that was just for esthetics since a high powered heating charm was actually used in the boiler.

 

I drew a few thoughts on how we could use that in something like a rocket and then realized that I had no idea how a rocket actually worked. Yet another subject to study and then a hand tapped our shoulder and we turned to see Hermione Granger and then we were wrapped up in a friendly hug. “Oh Luna! I was worried about you.”

 

“Why was that?” We tilted our head in confusion. We hadn’t done anything that dangerous this summer although another subject I was beginning to think about was the other Horcruxes and if we ought to actually do something with them. Plus there was the resurrection stone. Was there some way to destroy it?

 

She grabbed her bags and we followed her onto the train and into a compartment. “Did you hear about followers of you know who at the Quidditch World Cup?”

 

“I was there!” Ginny spoke up. Apparently I had missed the red haired girl somehow when we entered the cabin. Rather unfortunate that we couldn’t just stun her right there, but she was Luna’s friend. “Harry was so brave he would have defeated them right then and there if people would have just let him. Of course they didn’t and the Deatheaters killed muggles and then put up the dark mark.”

 

Drat we had just been on a short vacation with Xenophilius looking for blubbering humdingers. They clearly didn’t exist, but those trips were the only way Luna had any time with her father. Of course by now Luna and I worked on the assumption was that something probably didn’t exist unless there was evidence. That didn’t keep Luna from hoping or from looking for evidence, but so far in the case of the blubbering humdingers there had been not a single shred of evidence at all.

 

On the other hand we had apparently missed an important event and by now the Prophet had probably reported on it. We hoped our reporters, I mean the Quibbler’s reporters, had at least done a story about it, but in the meantime we asked, “So what happened exactly?”

 

We were looking at Hermione since it was likely that her version of events might be more truthful but it was Ginny who began, “The Quidditch match was exciting . . .”

 

She lost me after those five words and somewhere in the middle of her recounting we said, “I didn’t mean the match, but thank you Ginny. I was thinking more about after.”

 

We looked at Hermione pleadingly and she spoke next, “Well after the game itself had ended a sort of riot broke out because Death Eaters had begun attacking the tents of wizards and witches as well as a Muggle family. They levitated, tormented, and humiliated the muggles while various Ministry officials, including Mr. Weasley, tried to help the Muggles. Somehow Harry, Ron, and I got separated from the rest of the Weasleys and ended up in the nearby forest where met up with Draco Malfoy. He was an utter jerk and suggested that the Death Eaters would target me.”

 

I’m sure he would do that so very sure and I so want to kill him. There’s the funny thing too because I don’t care about the muggles who were tortured they are meaningless to me. Despite the innovations muggles have made they still seem vastly unimportant as individuals. I suppose it’s a far cry from hating all of them, but what actually upset me was Draco Malfoy and his treatment of Hermione.

 

Then again maybe I shouldn’t be so blasé? I’m not sure I’ve let go of an old hatred, but I’m not exactly the sort of person who enjoys the company of others and find it very difficult to feel anything at all for anyone muggle, pureblood, or muggleborn who is not well known to me. At the most I cared about Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ginny in exactly that order and some days I would be more than happy to watch Ron and Ginny slowly be eaten by a horde of ants.

 

“Luna?” We looked up at Hermione with a smile.

 

“Oh sorry Hermione what were you saying? I was processing your story.” Although we had apparently missed some as well, but from what I could tell she hadn’t actually been at the spot where the dark mark was cast and hadn’t been very close to the action other than her run in with Draco Malfoy.

 

“Just wanted to know if you wanted any snacks or treats?” She pointed to the lady with the snack car.

 

We shook our head and joined into more conversation with the other two girls. Then exited the train and went into the school. This year’s Opening ceremony was something like we had never seen before. Dumbledore announced that Hogwarts would be hosting the “Tri-Wizards Tournament!”

 

This meant that students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would be attending Hogwarts with us this year. The boys and girls from Drumstrang came in with a very Germanic sort of routine and then the girls and boys from Beauxbatons came in and performed their own sort of number. Also there was a rather large goblet taking up space and looking terribly important.

 

As we’re sitting there watching the Beauxbatons people perform I think about how far we’ve gone since the Diary incident. I try to explain it to Luna and assure her that I won’t take over her body entirely anymore, but she just laughs. I suppose it is funny since we’ve been living like this for long enough that it would be difficult to be anything other than what we have become. Getting rid of Luna at this point would be something akin to purposefully splinching my body at the waist.

 

We glance around the room and one of the girls from Beauxbatons just draws our eyes to her. We notice that lots of the boys seem to be staring at her too. Veela allure I think, apparently it has a minor effect on us, but we can shake it off. Even so she is more than stunning to look at even without the allure affecting our head. We check to see which of the males seem to be resistant to the allure and catch Harry Potter’s eye.

 

We shrug to Harry and that did something interesting. I look down and oh yes we have breasts. Yet another feature of being female they just sort of came in this summer and I’m just getting used to the feelings they provide when they move about. I look away from Harry and then over to Hermione. She’s smacking Ron on the head because he’s literally drooling over the Veela. She gives up and sighs a big sigh and oh wow how had we missed the fact that she has breasts too?

 

I suddenly feel warm and the tips of my chest ache a bit and something warm is between my legs. What very strange sensations even trying to describe them is difficult it is like the tips of our breasts or nipples are hard and there is a sort of tightness and need lower down at the juncture of our legs very close to where we would use the restroom from. We look away from Hermione and end up looking at that Veela girl and those sensations continue making us want to rub our thighs together before we finally tear our eyes away and look at our lap. I feel fire on her cheeks. We’re embarrassed now and how funny is that?

 

The opening feast ends and we head to our dorm rooms. We lay back in bed and our mind wanders over Hermione and our new appreciation of her curves, then we tear our mind away from that and it goes to the Veela and her curves. It’s terribly hot in bed now and I can’t concentrate enough for a simple cooling charm. We exit bed and thankfully a cool shower helps bring our concentration back. Once we’re back in bed I remind myself and Luna to find a book on biology or to talk to the nurse. Clearly there is something very strange going on with our biology.

 

In the morning we get up early and head to the nurse, Flintlen or maybe Bastrophel? Well whatever her name is we describe our symptoms and she stares at us for a few moments. She leaves the area and comes back later with a book. So we read the book and find out far more than I imagined I might ever need to know.

 

Deciding not to ponder this new information we go to our first class and in our free time we think more on our burgeoning theory of magic. We know that testing theories is what muggles do it’s called science. We use magic and there’s the difference, maybe magic is inherently meant to be foolish and stupid. It would then follow that it would be utterly foolish and stupid to test magic, which suggests that doing so is perfectly fine right? Maybe not.

 

**************************

 

We signed up for Arithmancy and Ancient Runes this year and at least the homework keeps us somewhat busy. Of course we still have free time and there’s this large goblet here in Hogwarts. I’m no idiot here as I stare at this Goblet I absolutely know that it has something to do with Dumbledore’s plans for Harry Potter. Well, this time I’m not going to leave Hermione alone to go after her hippogryph am I?

 

So, here we have this Goblet of Fire on one hand and do we not also have a theory on how magic works? Can we not test this theory of magic placing our name in the Goblet? Have I mentioned that this plan was stupid? Good, because that was the idea here. We were doing the stupidest thing a fourteen year old could do and seeing what the magic would decide. Of course, we weren’t exactly a normal fourteen year old, but we couldn’t exactly volunteer Ginny could we?

 

Luna was vehement that we could not volunteer Ginny and I suppose I didn’t want to. Draco Malfoy or his goons on the other hand, well even Luna was a bit tempted to volunteer them and hope that we would get to watch them die in hilarious ways.

 

Unfortunately we didn’t have any way to get Malfoy to sign a piece of paper so, without any additional entries in hand other than ours; we went to the area with the Goblet of Fire and examined it. Around the Goblet of Fire was an age line. The first thing we tried was simply walking across. After all I should technically be in my sixties by now or perhaps nineteen if sixteen had been my established age at diary entry and I aged with Luna now. Well neither age was apparently true, because we might as well have tried to walk into a brick wall for all the good that did us.

 

With the dead simplest plan taken out of commission and considering the fact that I was capable of creating a powerful item like a Horcrux something like bypassing an age line was like child’s play. Of course, I didn’t want to remove the line and replace it, because then someone would become suspicious. No, the best way for Luna and I to compete would be to take our entry, transfigure it into a pigeon, and then drop the transfiguration over the Goblet.

 

With our entry in the goblet the first part of our test of this hypothesis was done. It was utterly stupid for a fourteen year old girl to compete in this contest. If magic followed on my theorized lines of stupidity the goblet would pick Luna and we would compete. In addition we suspected that Dumbledore had some plan here and if we did get involved with it we could hopefully keep our friend Hermione safe. That was vastly important here. No matter what Dumbledore was planning with Harry we wanted to keep the old man from killing Hermione. I suppose we might, as a secondary consideration, think about helping Harry out, if he needed it, since he’s the only other person on Luna’s list of friends that I find marginally appealing.

 

There were more classes and Luna actually had a chance to study with Hermione Granger other than on Saturdays. Professor Septima Vector suggested that the two of us get together due to some apparently similar theories we had on Arithmancy. That wasn’t terribly strange since the two of us had been discussing Arithmancy since we met. So, we did group up and worked on a new project for a spell that would let you levitate multiple items it was a variation of the _alohamora_.

 

Have I mentioned that Hermione is a pleasant girl and easy on the eyes too? She has lovely brown hair, with soulful brown eyes and is super intelligent. “Have you considered attempting to move up a grade level Luna?”

 

Had we? Not really, but it sounded appealing, “No, but what we’re doing is beyond some of the highest classes Professor Vector teaches. Would it matter what year we were in?”

 

She shrugged, “Well obviously not for this, but I know you are way beyond your year in Runes and probably other classes too. Also we could study together more often than just Saturdays and Sundays because we’d have the same work.”

 

Oh more studying together with Hermione there’s an excellent plan indeed. We went to Professor McGonagall and suggested that we’d like to move up a grade level entirely forgetting we’d need to speak with Dumbledore as well.

 

“I know you had EE’s in every class last year Luna, but we’ve never moved someone up a year here in Hogwarts. I suppose I could bring it up with the Board of Governors. Why would you like to be moved up anyway?”

 

There was the twinkle and the mental invasion. Honestly the man had the moral scruples of, well me. By that I mean the same scruples I had at sixteen. Sure he wasn’t killing all the other students, but why use Legillemency on students like this? I gave him visions of Ron and Harry, “I don’t have many friends in Ravenclaw and the friends I do have are a year ahead of me.”

 

I gave him images of the other three and a very scant few of Hermione. I didn’t want him to associate us too much with the girl he was intent on killing. So, I gave him even more with Ginny and Luna talking and one of the long droning speeches on Quidditch. “What about Giverva Weasley?”

 

“Well she’s one, but Harry and Ron are my friends too. Plus the work is just so easy for me; maybe the challenge of being a year ahead would be nice?” Look up with those sweet innocent blue eyes. It probably doesn’t work on the callous bastard.

 

“Sorry Luna, but I’m going to have to say no.”

 

He looks at us sadly? Yeah I don’t believe his expression any more than we believed his. “Well thank you sir. Maybe I can do even better this year and convince you that I deserve to be a higher year.”

 

We reported our disappointment to Hermione and she said, “Well I suppose he knows best.”

 

What was there to say to that? She was so used to respectable authority figures that she just assumed that Dumbledore was one. Subsuming whatever she’d been thinking to his age and wisdom.

 

There was one other issue that kept cropping up in these study sessions and it was one that no book Luna and I could find seemed to be able to answer at all. How often is someone allowed to look at someone else’s breasts? Can we look at them as she enters and quickly look up to her face? All in all it seemed that we should probably focus on Hermione’s face, but we just didn’t want to. On the other hand we did suspect that it was rude not to talk to someone’s face. We did basically come up with our own system of rules and determined that any staring at her chest would be done when Hermione would be least likely to notice.

 

We also decided that we probably should take showers at separate times from the other girls in our dorm. This was because we had been asked a bit too often about just what we were staring at. In fact those original inquiries into what Luna was staring at were, in fact, how we figured out the rules we made for ourselves on looking at Hermione came from.

 

Taking showers on our own was still really very nice. We or Luna did have some beginning curves and washing her body made her feel all warm and her nipples hard. Then we’d touch down between and ohh it was so very nice. Reading up in some muggle books we found that it was perfectly natural for girls of fourteen to explore their bodies and at the same time it was a little bit weird to do so. Like maybe we shouldn’t or something? I don’t know it was a very complex feeling part shame and part desire to continue on anyway. Finally Luna and I decided that we would do some more exploring when we were fifteen maybe.

 

One night after a dream with Hermione taking center stage we woke up and it was like our body was filled with wildfire. There was a desperate need right between our legs and we rubbed our thighs together. That wasn’t helping at all though and Luna’s hand touching her breast was just making things worse. Our own body was simply lovely and it just ached to be touched, and I know because I was the one doing the aching right along with Luna.

 

There was nothing for it, I apparated us to the shower and hit the cold water. Thankfully the castle wards only prevent apparition into it from the outside and not apparition around inside. The freezing water spilled over our body and cooled us down just like it had the last time. That was good to know because we ended up taking a large number of those showers at night.

**************************

 

The strange thing here is that I had hardly even noticed girls before getting stuck in my diary. Maybe I was too busy with thoughts on world domination I guess. Now though Luna and I seemed to notice them all the time. Each of those girls had the same parts Luna did and we both wondered what it would be like to touch them and rub against them. Suffice it to say we lost count of the total number of cold showers we were taking until the day of the announcement for who would be the Tri-Wizard competitors.

 

By the time the announcement came about we had continued trying unsuccessfully to get transferred into a higher year, but despite our excellent skills and magical abilities we were still stuck in third year and honestly we were still bored. Some of that boredom was because high level muggle science and engineering books could not be purchased in Hogsmeade. We did try to keep as many projects on hand as we could, but sometimes we hit a wall and needed to find something else to do.

 

Somewhere along the line we started playing practical jokes on Luna’s dorm mates or at least the ones who had been continuing the onslaught of childish name calling. Plus it was an additional way to keep ourselves entertained. It took a while for the name calling to stop despite a few days of our work. Still it did finally come to an end in our presence as apparently when one is turned green, or shaved bald enough times, even a stupid person realizes that one’s actions might be causing the situation. Not that anyone had definitive proof that Luna and I had actually done the deeds, but there was a rather good correlative effect. Interestingly enough this showed that wizards and witches could use logic if they were exposed to negative consequences enough times. Either that or it showed that wizards and witches could be cowed by practical jokes.

 

In any case the day of the announcement for the Tri-Wizard’s Cup Competition had come and we were sitting in the great hall and eyeing up the Veela student who I’m sure was introduced at some point, but we forgot her name. Well maybe forgot is too harsh perhaps it was more like we tended to think of her as “yummy” more than anything else. I expect that if we got past our own ogling we could probably figure out her name. Well reasonably sure at least or maybe fifteen percent chance?

 

I am realizing once again that I have entirely ruined any chance that I will become some horrible terrorist like he became. To think all it took was teenage hormones and my plans for world domination are undone yet again. I suppose we’ll have to settle for Minister of Magic or even some other profession. News Reporter, Auror, Unspeakable? Well I’m sure something interesting will come up and in the meantime we can enjoy our life.

 

I suppose someone somewhere might be saying I’m still evil for staying in Luna’s mind and sharing all of my secrets and not just letting go and to them I’d probably shrug. Yes, I’m here and yes I am enjoying my stay, but she’s fourteen and our ages aren’t that far off. Yes, supposedly I’m sixty six or possibly nineteen, but the magical age line didn’t agree with either possible age meaning that Luna and I are technically somewhere between fourteen and seventeen together. Either that or it’s just more proof that magic is stupid.

 

While I was having these mental conversations with myself, and let’s be honest I do so enjoy having them, Durmstrang’s champion was chosen. The champion for Durmstrang was Victor Krum, a rather solid looking Bulgarian fellow. I remembered Ginny mentioning something about his flying skills and Luna did seem to think he was quite handsome, but honestly he was not my type at all. She seemed a bit disappointed by that and complained that she might like to try being bi-sexual and I apologized that it was probably just not going to be the case.

 

Luna took it well enough especially when the next champion was chosen Fluer Delacour from Beauxbatons. See I knew I’d remember her name, even if it did have to be announced to the entire great hall by a flaming goblet. She jiggled up to the front and while I’m sure other people would describe her motions as flowing and exotic all I saw were certain portions of her anatomy and they were definitely jiggling. Delightfully so I must say.

 

Luna turned our gaze to Fleur’s face and while it was not as much fun as other parts of her body it was quite pretty too. Fluer had exquisite blonde hair and blue eyes and high cheekbones with full pouting red lips. She was actually prettier than our friend Hermione, although Luna reminded me that it would be rude to tell Hermione this. I suppose I agreed as I’m pretty sure Luna wouldn’t want to be reminded that she wasn’t as pretty as Fluer either.

 

When I said that to Luna I was in for a rather terrible scolding and I had to apologize. There look at that a boy who was so socially inept that he released a basilisk to kill his fellow students has somehow come around to apologizing to a girl for telling her she wasn’t as pretty as some other girl. Even if the girl he’s apologizing to is technically the same one he currently is I suppose it’s probably some form of progress. Now I almost want to visit London and kill off a few muggles. No one would miss them much right?

 

“Luna Lovegood!” Oh look everyone’s staring at us and Luna has nearly fainted. I had best stand up and go to the front. It’s not too hard to walk over there and give out that vague sort of smile that Luna’s terribly good at.

 

We give a sort of regal wave as we stand there noting that Professor McGonagall is aghast, Dumbledore looks discomfited, and Snape looks like he ate a lemon, but that’s his usual expression. Professor Flitwick looks amused though I suppose because he’s Luna’s head of house or something. Meanwhile the people in charge of the other schools and the person from the government look annoyed. I’m sure they aren’t annoyed because I don’t recall their names, but instead because we have made a farce of the proceedings. I verbally make that point when one of them asks me what I was thinking. Even though it is likely to be a rhetorical question we answer it right there in the great hall. “Oh well you see I was proving a theory of mine about magic. You know I thought the age line was quite foolish and that it was really ridiculous to have students of any age compete in a contest where some had died in the past. In fact I thought the entire thing was a farce to begin with. So to test my theory I transfigured my entry into a dove and undid the transfiguration over the goblet. If the entire thing was indeed a farce and intended to be so then clearly my name would be chosen.”

 

Our line of reasoning really upset everyone and they were all trying to talk at the same time, but even as everyone was busy being so annoyed by my entry the goblet threw out another name. “Harry Potter!”

 

To say that there was chaos is really just understating things. Pandemonium, hell on earth, Armageddon, well now I’m probably going too far, but it was a giant mess. Four entries in the Tri-Wizard championship? It’s almost like the prefix “Tri” didn’t even mean anything. Then again we’re talking about magic and I believe my theory on it is just getting more and more evidence. Magic does what is stupid, and magical people can thrive even when they are stupid; the essence of magic might potentially even be stupidity. For a brief moment I wondered if maybe there was an utter boneheaded incantation somewhere that would actually make me immortal. Then I realized that technically there was, it was the very same thing I had done to myself when I put myself into my diary!

 

Sadly even chaos and utter pandemonium can’t last forever. Hmm perhaps I ought to have said happily, but in any case things settled down and no one believed Harry Potter didn’t put his name in. Well no one except Luna, I and possibly Hermione although I deeply suspected that Dumbledore knew the truth.

 

In any case we’d have to ask Hermione, but really from my perspective of Harry if he purposefully got involved with this tournament that would be a rather amazing change in his basic nature. Some people might ask me how I know his nature, but really it isn’t all that difficult to understand him. He’s basically a young orphan, raised by people who didn’t understand him and struggling in a world he still doesn’t understand. Somewhere along the line he’s had some sort of basic heroism bound into his nature.

 

Again someone might ask how I know about that, but come now. I have already played the villain and though someone was manipulating him into place Harry Potter was the hero coming to thwart me. He was very definitely a hero there, although I suppose I myself have gone into some form of villain decay, what with my inability to even take over Luna Lovegood and shred her soul. What’s next on my agenda petting a dog? No best not it would only be what they call a pet the dog moment.

 

In any case with that tiny bit of a joke about literary tropes done Luna and I were escorted elsewhere in the castle and we met the person from the ministry, he had a name I’m sure, along with Dumbledore and the headmasters of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. If I remember correctly the woman from Beauxbatons was Madame Maxine and the man from Durmstrang was called Igor Karkaroff either way I didn’t recognize either one of them from my life as a sixteen year old. It was the man from the ministry who spoke first, “You admit that you placed your name in the Goblet?”

 

“Oh yes sir I intended to compete for Hogwarts.” Everyone looked at us like we were utterly insane.

 

Karkaroff spoke up, “She’s under age! The Potter boy too, just have the goblet re-pick.”

 

It was technically too late for that and Dumbledore said so, “We can’t they are already in a binding contract.”

 

“You could always just make up three quick and easy tasks like walking a straight line, jumping a rope, and eating a pie. Then declare a winner and start again?” We smiled an airy sort of smile suggesting a pleasant breeze and a lack of higher brain capacity.

 

I spoke the most logical answer and the easiest solution to the problem so it was, not only discounted, but also pissed him off. He stood and said “No, little girl! You will compete and Harry Potter will too. Even if this kills both of you!” Then Karkaroff stalked off muttering about how such an idiotic girl would never place well at all.

 

Madame Maxine looked at us and looked back towards where Karkaroff had left. “You are either, extremely intelligent and brave, or entirely insane young miss. I hope fate favors you and somehow you do not die.”

 

That was the end of the conversation from her and she left as well. The Ministry person hurled some more imprecations at Luna and then left us. Dumbledore spoke, “Mr. Bagman if you will please wait outside we’ll go talk to Harry together. I just want to have a few words with Luna alone.”

 

The door closed and he looked at us with a twinkle in his eye. Legillemency again? We showed him some lovely images of the squirrel/badger thing with a crumpled horn. Then we twisted it around and had it start pooping little rainbow nuggets. “You’re a hard girl to read Luna.”

 

“Oh? Well I don’t try to be. Would you like a Kit Kat bar?” We held out a wrapped bar of candy to him.

 

He almost looked tempted, but apparently thought better of taking my candy. “Thank you, but no. Here I was going to offer you a Lemon Drop, but I guess you feel the same.”

 

We nodded and then opened the wrapper and ate the candy bar as he spoke. “I suspect that this is your further attempt to move up a grade level young lady?”

 

Actually that was at the bottom of my list and we hadn’t even thought of it until after we had put Luna’s name in the goblet. “Yes, sir I intended to prove myself.”

 

He shook his head, “I do hope that your decision does not haunt us all. However, if you do survive, I will rethink my original decision.”

 

“Thank you sir!” We smiled brightly. It was a nice thought to be a year up and see Hermione more often.

 

“You’re welcome and now I must catch up with Mr. Bagman.” He left and I suspect that he and the ministry official went to go speak with Harry. I was betting that Harry also told that he had done something utterly foolish that there was nothing that could be done and now he’d have to compete. However I never did hear what was said and Harry didn’t report the exact words or details to me. We did, on the other hand, get to experience the Ravenclaw tower with lots of disapproving stares. Since this seemed to be rather normal event we went to bed.

 

The next day had Fred and George Weasley find us in the hallway we looked at them and said, “Hello Fred and hello to you as well George.”

 

“He’s Fred and I’m George.” That was Fred speaking and we just shook our head.

 

“Not unless you somehow switched heads in the night.”

 

George spoke up saying, “How do you do that? Really even our own mum and dad can’t tell us apart. You said you’d tell us when you visited this summer and then went and didn’t visit.”

 

I simply spoke the truth when I said, “You house is a mess of chaos and pandemonium. While it is true that Ginny is somehow technically my friend she is also obsessed with Harry Potter and Quidditch. So while I did say I would probably visit again this summer I did not make any promises and was more than happy to avoid your mother, Ron, and other family members excepting possibly Arthur Weasley. Although even in that case I have mostly gotten any information I can use.”

 

They looked at each other clearly understanding my words and apparently deciding to switch topics, “How did you get past the age line? George and I used an aging potion, but it didn’t work at all.”

 

“I used Transfiguration of a note into a creature that flew. If I had simply made the note fly it would have been repelled by one of the wards, but apparently no one considered someone would transfigure a note to a pigeon and back.”

 

They shook their heads in concert then George said, “That’s high level transfiguration right there George. We might think about working with her if we ever get a shop. Maybe even on our pranks.”

 

We shook our head, “You have your pranks and I have mine. They should probably remain distinct. Although I would request that you not play any of your pranks on me.”

 

“No, no after your prank on the Goblet we know better competition when we see it.” Fred said that, but George was clearly in agreement.

 

The two departed after that meeting and we rarely saw them afterwards. Interesting on a different level from the twins was that the Hogwarts students by and large seemed embarrassed by both of their champions and there wasn’t much Luna and I could do about it. That Saturday when we spent time with Hermione she castigated us, “Luna what were you thinking! You could be killed.”

 

“Well I wanted to get pushed into higher classes, but no one would listen. Also as I explained the entire contest sounded like such a farce that I thought putting my name in would be just as much of a farce. I only had a small percent chance of being picked, unless my theory ended up being correct.” Also we were attempting to ensure that Hermione lived through the year and this little contest was clearly part of some plan that might get her killed. We didn’t mention that to her though because it sounded a little bit paranoid there.

 

Hermione sighed and I enjoyed what that did to her chest, then we looked her in the eyes as Luna jerked our gaze away as we reminded ourselves that she might be watching and any more than a second or so might have her catch us looking. “Luna I know you have some theory that magic is stupid, but maybe you were taking it a bit far?”

 

We shrugged, “It’s okay Hermione I know you don’t believe my theories, but I was going about the experiment with muggle ideas in mind. Science says we ought to test our hypothesis right?”

 

Hermione nodded sadly and we continued, “Well my hypothesis was that magic would pick the worst possible entry. It would behave stupidly and what happened seems to have borne out my theory.”

 

What could the muggle girl say to that? We were in the realm of muggle things here and I bet she had believed in scientific rigor before coming to Hogwarts. I expect she still believed in it and she replied proving my point. “Yes, Luna that’s how you do science, but you shouldn’t be risking your life like that. I mean I know that lots of scientists have died for the pursuit of knowledge, but maybe we can take a few lessons from them in safety right? You didn’t have anything to do with Harry did you?”

 

We shook our head, “No, I just put my own entry in, although it would certainly be possible for someone to place his entry in without his knowledge and possible to fool the goblet into making him participate. Unfortunately nearly any adult wizard or witch would have that ability though.”

 

I suppose I didn’t need to add that although nearly any adult could do it most of them were too imbecilic to even begin the plan. Hermione nodded and said, “I just don’t know why they would maybe Harry did it on his own?”

 

“He could have entered like I did, but then he might have been picked instead of me. There’s only one contender allowed per school so the only way to make four entries would be to somehow make the goblet think that there were four schools and I don’t think Harry would have tried to cheat that much to compete now would he?”

 

Hermione shook her head, “No, you’re right Luna. Harry could possibly have maybe done what you did or something similar, but he wouldn’t have cheated to make sure he got a chance to compete.”

 

E continued on after that adding, “It is a bit scary though. Someone added Harry’s name so they want him to compete. Do you think it could be a Deatheater?”

 

I wondered for a moment if Dumbledore put Harry’s name in that seemed like something he might do, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what his game was yet. “Possibly, but who was a Deatheater there and wanted Harry to compete? Headmaster Karkaroff was clearly against the extra competition and he turned evidence on other Deatheaters.”

 

“I don’t know Luna and it scares me.” She put her arm on our shoulder while we thought more about Dumbledore. Could he have done it? Maybe he could have at that I’ll be honest and say that he has years more experience than me at all of this and he’s much more Slytherin than any other Slytherin ever born since Salazar himself.

 

While we were thinking about that Hermione moved her hand and hugged us close. “I have you and Harry competing in this thing Luna and you’re a year younger than he is! Just try and keep yourself safe okay?”

 

We agreed to do so and she hugged us again after that. I’d like to take another moment to say that hugs are rather nice you know, warm and soft and just amazing. Hermione’s hugs, by the way, are some of the most amazing hugs you will ever find. As an extra note if someone out there is actually somehow reading my personal narration then, if you hug Hermione, I will be forced to harm you in cruel and horrifying ways.

 

Life continues on, especially at a boarding school. There are classes to get perfect marks in and libraries to explore esoteric things in. There’s also a crazy man with a magical eye who teaches defense against the dark arts. His name was Professor Moody and apparently he had fought against Voldemort in the “Wizarding War” he was always on about “Constant Vigilance”

 

Apparently he and Igor Karkaroff from Durmstrang didn’t get along since Karkaroff was a former Deatheater. As I mentioned to Hermione I would have put Karkaroff’ s name on the list of people who entered Harry into the tournament, but something about him said that he wanted his champion, Victor Krum, to win and thus wouldn’t have added any extra competition.

 

The puzzle of who might have added Harry’s name to the goblet was not getting any easier with time and unsurprisingly no one let Luna and I examine the goblet and especially not with a blood spell. I still greatly suspected Dumbledore, but without anything to go on the suspicion was useless. So, in our own little quest to ease our boredom we began to wonder if we could surprise Professor Moody. Really, what could possibly be better to prove his point right? If he was serious about “Constant Vigilance” he’d spot us at it and if he wasn’t we’d just prove he needed to have it. Luna found the idea rather humorous and enticing.

 

We needed something more to do at night especially on nights where we were hot and bothered by thinking about Hermione and her hugs. At this point Luna was suggesting that we clearly felt more for Hermione than friendship and I had to agree. Exactly what this feeling was for the muggleborn girl was not something I wanted to dwell on and especially not alone in our bed at night thus we needed other projects.

 

In addition to our normal work we ventured into a plan to prank Professor “Mad Eye” Moony. Our first attempt was late one night that we snuck above his room and transfigured a bit of floor into air and lowered our rope. We had figured he’d have ward lines at the doors and walls, but not the ceiling. We were wrong and spent the night in a body bind trap. We lost twenty points for Ravenclaw and ended up in detention. What do you know he really meant his entire spiel on “Constant Vigilance”?

 

There had to be some way to get to him, but between classes he ended up stunning us from disillusionment in a hall corner. We tried setting up traps before class started, but when he came in he disarmed them all. Then we removed the ward in his room, replaced it and waited for him to return. Our stunner slammed into his dragon hide vest under his shirt and he activated all the wards with a gesture.

 

We dodged out of the way of three bodybinds that came from those wards and jumped onto the bedrail, then up to the ceiling where we transfigured a handle into the stone and held on. Professor Moody shot a stunner and we flung ourselves across the ceiling to another transfigured handle. In the air we shot a stunner back at him aiming more carefully, but he dodged it.

 

Unfortunately that section of the ceiling was electrified and we let go of our handle falling into a pile of devil’s snare. We transfigured the devil’s snare into pillows and tossed a stunner at Professor Moody. He returned with another stunner and the room itself had three acromantulas that attacked us. One bit us and that was it.

 

We woke and I cursed we could have won that duel if we’d thrown about dark curses instead of piddly stunners. The Professor was staring at us bound in webs, he was holding our wand, “Pureblood witch it shows. You’d have made an excellent servant to the Dark Lord.”

 

Well crap now he thought we served Voldemort/me which I guess isn’t technically wrong since I and Voldemort were basically part of the same soul. “I wouldn’t.”

 

He shrugged, “Maybe not and maybe so. There’s darkness coming little witch and you’re one of the best I’ve seen. Better than those Weasley twins for sure and better than the sniveling children of other Purebloods who betrayed the Dark Lord for their own miserable hides. There could be a place for a witch like you in the world that’s coming.”

 

He handed us our wand even as he removed the webbing. “Get on out of here Luna Lovegood and forty points to Ravenclaw for intelligence and determination and a detention for you tomorrow evening. We’ll be having no more of this right?”

 

“Right.” We said and went to our bed. The detention the next day was not terribly boring at all. He showed us some material he was working on with the higher years including how to throw off the Imperius curse. We did it in our first try and then spent the rest of detention dodging as he threw lots more spells at us.

 

When the detention was over he said, “Not bad, you could be an Auror maybe or even something better. Someday you might want to think about where your allegiance is Pureblood Witch.”

 

I guess he saw something in us that suggested we were in danger of joining up with Voldemort’s followers now that they were out and about so he wanted to convince us to join the Aurors or even Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix which had come about in the last war too. He really seemed to hate Karkaroff and even the Malfoys, so his determination to get Luna on his side and not theirs was completely understandable.

 

So it was not for a lack of trying that Professor Moody went un-pranked by us, though to be honest he was one of the few teachers we actually learned something from. Even if he was rather creepy and probably thought we were going to become a Deatheater without his warnings.

 

On the other hand we got yet another visit from the Weasley twins. “Luna Lovegood we hear amazing things about you.”

 

That was Fred and I said, “Oh is that right Fred and I thought we agreed to go our separate ways.”

 

They went back and forth from one to the next now as they spoke, “We did, but then you went and almost got Mad Eye. That puts you in a select category.”

 

We’d seen that one at their house, but I did admit it was slightly impressive. “Do you use Legillemency to do that?”

 

“Very special indeed right Fred?” That was George speaking

 

“You’re right Fred.” That was George and then I wondered if they even knew for sure. Could they be partially stuck in each other’s head like I was with Luna?

 

“Okay so I’m special. What do you two want anyway?”

 

“Investors we’re thinking or even a third partner. You win and we could use another investor in this idea we have for our very own joke shop.” Now that was halfway interesting, but not quite my speed.

 

“Ever think of working with muggle inventions?” They looked back and forth at each other. I wondered what was passing through their thoughts.

 

“We had a Ford Angelina that we worked on for our father. We’re more jokes suited though.” They smiled and Fred pulled a weird sort of face.

 

We looked at them and made a decision since they seemed to be more than intelligent enough and we had heard of some of their more infamous pranks. “I make money from my byline in the Quibbler, but it isn’t much. If I do somehow win this thing we’ll go into business. We’ll do more than jokes though I want to change the world.”

 

They nodded and both shook one of our hands, “Deal Luna. We’ll work for you.”

 

They were gone and suddenly I realized that we had just set down on a path I had only been dreaming of as a possibility. All we needed to do was win this thing and continue learning new things.

 

On the other hand, with the end of our attempts to prank that professor, we needed a new night time activity. So, we went on to trying to learn Chinese since we had become mostly fluent in Swedish by now.

 

As part of the Tri Wizard Tournament there was a Wand Weighing Ceremony. So the first thing Luna and I did before the ceremony was cast a few hundred extra spells. It wouldn’t be enough to fool the _Priori Incantatum_ , but with so many spells cast after the killing curse it would take too long for any simple ceremony to show that curse using that spell.

 

Victor Krum went first and Garrick Ollivander, I remembered that he gave me my first wand, weighed it. He didn’t even cast the _Priori Incantatum_ instead apparently just ensuring that it was in good condition. When he was done examining the wand he spoke, “Ten and three quarters inches hornbeam wood with a dragon heartstring core. It’s a bit rigid, but it should do you.”

 

He handed the wand to Victor and Fluer was next. Eyes up Thom stop staring at her rear she is a person you know and has a personality. Maybe you should get to know that before you stare at her? “Nine and a half inches rose wood with a Veela hair core. Almost inflexible I might say still a good wand.”

 

We were next and he studied the wand for a little bit longer maybe because there is no specific handle area on it or perhaps some other reason. Hopefully not because he was silently trying to figure out what spells had been cast with it. “Oh I remember giving you this one. Ten and a half inches bark pocket maple with a Unicorn hair core. Very flexible although a little bit dark it should stand you in good stead.”

 

We took our wand back and Harry was next, “Eleven Inches holly with a Phoenix feather core. It is still in good condition with some springiness.”

 

We gaped at that revelation. He had our wand or my old wand? No it was too light in color so it was another wand made with the same wood and same core. With that the ceremony was over and only Ollivander could answer our questions. How to begin though?

 

Wait for him to go to a more secluded area? He’s not going anywhere yet and while we were watching the ceremony we noticed some sort of school spirit that was picking up. Students were wearing pins with Luna’s name on them and others wore Harry’s name although a number of Slytherin students seemed to think he had body odor. I didn’t mind them supporting us or not, but something about the pins with Luna’s name was a bit disturbing. After all I think I have already shown that the idea of marking one’s followers was not good.

 

Luna convinced me that a pin was vastly different from a dark mark and I agreed even as the wand weighing was over. We saw that Ollivander was free and went to him. “Hi there I was wondering if you could answer a question for me.”

 

“Of course young lady.” He smiled at us and it seemed quite genuine. As if he enjoyed answering people’s questions.

 

“I had heard a rumor that Harry Potter’s wand was the same as the one use by the Dark Lord. Is that true? Why would it go back into use after that?” Curiosity probably shone brightly on our face.

 

“Not the same actually it’s a brother wand made from the same materials and the same phoenix. I always keep wands in circulation though because as you know the wand chooses the wizard.” He certainly believed that.

 

Strange coincidence or something more? “Did you make the wands at the same time then?”

 

He shook his head, “No actually. I made the second one later when Albus Dumbledore gave me a second feather from his friend Hawkes.”

 

“Thank you sir. I have to be going.” We walked towards a woman from the Prophet who was waving at us. Still in my mind was that he made the second wand later, in fact, just after Dumbledore gave him a second feather.

 

This is the point where I think that it isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you. If there was one person in my life who seemed to embody that it was Albus Dumbledore. Out to get me when I was in school and apparently out to get Voldemort later on. I wanted to say I couldn’t blame him for the second part since I/he became a mad terrorist, but in the case of Dumbledore I did blame him. I wondered again what his plan could be. He was Head Master at Hogwarts, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock in the Wizengamot he’d turned down the position of Minister of Magic numerous times so what did he want?

 

As we thought on that question a reporter from the Prophet wanted to speak to us. Luna and I patiently explained our theory of magic and how we were going about proving it. Well we started patiently explaining, but the reporter wandered off to interview Harry Potter. We went back to the reporter from the Quibbler and explained our theory and the scientific method even though I doubted any of our readers would even begin to understand it.

 

Looking over at Harry he was utterly swamped with reporters and such as if he was a famous star. This was true in many ways, but Luna and I didn’t begrudge Harry his stardom though. After all we certainly didn’t want it and it seemed like he really didn’t want it.

 

Another of those magical effects I guess, you don’t want stardom and you get it especially if you really really don’t want it. There were exceptions like Gilderoy Lockheart, but where was he now? He was a mindless husk who couldn’t even remember how to go to the bathroom on his own.

 

That is when I remembered “the greater good” that’s what Dumbledore wanted. He believed in it so sincerely that, although he eschewed using his own wand, he tried to have people killed. As I had thought to myself to him the ends justified the means as long and as long as his own hands weren’t bloody then everything was fine. It was a frightening thought because even at sixteen I had thought of myself as evil or at least according to people who had such standards, but maybe there was something worse than someone who thought they were evil. My ultimate enemy wasn’t a villain they were a hero even in their own mind.

 

It all suddenly made more sense to me and yet there wasn’t much I could do about it. So, there were more classes and quite a bit of building for the First Task. Luna and I avoided the construction area figuring that we might as well work within the spirit of the rules. Well at least that was the plan, but, sadly our plan failed right out of the gate because Harry Potter came to us one day and said, “Luna, just so you know the first task is going to be against dragons.”

 

“Oh Harry, I was hoping that the most idiotic way of accomplishing the task by not knowing anything would actually be a benefit to winning, but that’s okay. I forgive you.” He looked at us entirely perplexed and I had to agree that we did sound rather odd.

 

“Oh well ahhm uh sorry Luna, it’s just that the others already knew and I didn’t want you to get left out.” He blushed and kicked at the floor. I suspect we had embarrassed him in some way.

 

On that note we gave him a hug. This was one of very few hugs initiated by ourselves and given out to someone else. He turned an even brighter shade of red, but this hug didn’t feel nearly as nice as the ones with Hermione. “Well thank you then Harry, if everyone has the unfortunate chance to have been given knowledge of the task and thus hurting their potential I accept that we should be fair and harm my potential by giving me knowledge as well.”

 

He sputtered some as we let him go from the hug and looked at us as if we had two heads. I suspect it isn’t every day that wizards purposefully attempt to do things stupidly. No they start at the other end thinking that their stupid ideas are actually brilliant ones. It must have truly boggled his mind that anyone would simply start at magic from the other side. Either that or Luna and I are insane and he was realizing it right there, but the second seems so much less likely don’t you think?

 

We studied some more and had more classes. We had some lovely discussions with Hermione Granger. She’s quite nice, and knowledgeable with lovely brown eyes. I think we’re repeating that from somewhere and then I wonder how it would feel if we just kissed her on the lips. Something like we do in fantasy and dreams, “Luna?”

 

Memory check and neither of us had any idea what she had just said. We were done talking about Transfiguration and the potential downside of using it wholesale to create gold on the muggle economy so what had she said next? Easy enough to find out we said, “Huh? What was that Hermione?”

 

Hermione smiled a very nice smile with perfect white teeth. “I was asking if you were ready for the first task tomorrow.”

 

“Oh yes, Harry told us it would have something to do with Dragons. Now there aren’t enough of me to use the spells dragon reserve people use to move them around and the spell I was working on for just one person to do it isn’t quite perfected and I don’t want to experiment with it in the field. So I have a few ideas based on studying dragons and their habits. Don’t worry I’m perfectly ready and I intend to be safe.”

 

She smiled again and hugged us. I have to admit that we were really enjoying these hugs now. In fact we were both remembering that hug with a smile right up until we walked into the arena and saw a rather gigantic dragon. Honestly I can’t recall what type of dragon it was, how about we go with the type with giant fangs, giant claws, and fiery breath shall we? Honestly when you see something like that you don’t exactly care if it’s the “Hungarian Horntail” or the “Gentle Breeze” because in all honesty every one of them ought to be called “Giant Murder Fiery Death”

 

“Go!” Someone yelled and we looked over at said death machine sitting on some eggs. Apparently some lunatic thought we ought to just sidle over and grab an egg from a mother dragon. Yeah, that wasn’t happening.

 

We sat down. “I said Go!”

 

“Oh yes, I heard you sir, but honestly it’s not right to steal an egg from a mother dragon, not even a fake egg. It would break her heart to lose it and besides, it would also rip us up, burn us, and chew us to tiny pieces. So I think I’ll just sit here and let time pass.” He looked at us not knowing what to say and the crowd in the stands booed. Jolly good for them they weren’t out here with the dragon.

 

Luna and I drew pictures in the dirt and generally just let time pass. Interestingly enough as time passed the giant murder death, that was a dragon, began to settle down. We were hoping that this would be the case and we watched as she sat on her clutch and shifted about fretting a bit. Over time she kept fretting about and moving and shifting until she nosed one of the eggs and took a good long sniff. Hours had passed by now and it was late in the day, but she pushed the egg out of her nest and it rolled away. Not too far, but with another hour or so gone since she’d nosed the egg out of her nest and the giant creature looking as if she might sleep Luna and I figured we could chance it now. We wandered lazily over to the fake egg, picked it up and walked back to the person, Luddite Bagperson maybe or something like that, who had started this thing many, many hours ago.

 

Apparently we were supposed to keep the egg for the second task, so we took it with us up to the Ravenclaw dorm and went to bed. Sometime later we were talking to Hermione again, “Honestly I think they gave you raw deal Luna. You knew that a brooding mother would kick the egg that wasn’t her own from the nest and you accomplished the task without any violence to yourself or the dragon. Fleur Delacour was burned, Victor Krum took quite a while and was nearly burned and even Harry was almost singed too.”

 

We shrugged, “Oh well they didn’t let me watch anyone before me and by the time I was done I wasn’t very interested in watching anyone else after me. Still, thanks for letting me know.”

She shook her head, “Yours was the most intelligent way to do it even if they did score you last on time. You know Harry summoned his broom swooped in, stole the egg, and outraced the dragon. He did that even after I said to be careful, he could have been killed!”

 

Luna suggested that this would not be the time to say that we had been careful. Hermione already knew that and thus did not require the information again. Luna thought she might need some form of comforting and I wracked my brain as well as Luna’s. “I am glad he is not injured. Also, I am told that Harry Potter is one of the best flyers in Hogwarts.”

 

Hermione laughed at this and said, “Oh Luna, trust you to bring out the Ravenclaw. Even if you are odd sometimes with your theories you do know how to set my mind at ease. I don’t know how you can help me with my work being a year behind like you are and I just wish they’d put you up a year so we could be in more classes.”

 

We would have liked that too and said, “I’ll keep trying, maybe if I prove myself in this tournament they may move me up a year.”

 

“Well if anyone deserves it you do Luna.” She smiled a lovely white perfect smile and hugged us again.

 

**************************

 

There were more classes and the like, but this year there were also Hogsmeade weekends. So that meant Luna and I could depart Hogwarts and go to Hogsmeade with Hermione and the others. At first our visits were just with Hermione and Harry until one day Ron came along as well. When we were sitting outside a bookshop glancing at some new purchases Luna spoke up, “So what’s with Ron? I though he wasn’t coming along anymore?”

 

“He apologized to Harry for thinking Harry had entered the competition on purpose. So now they are friends again.” She glanced over at the two outside of the joke shop.

 

“Ah is that how it works? If one apologizes then friendship is reaffirmed? Do you think Ginny might apologize for continuously speaking about Harry and Quidditch?”

 

Hermione shrugged, “I think it’s part of being friends you accept each other’s flaws.”

 

We looked over at Harry and Ron, “I see that is how you are able to continue being friends with Ron despite his actions last year, his actions this year, his insufficient mental capacity, and the fact that his friendship with Harry is clearly harming Harry’s school work.”

 

Hermione stared at us and we looked at her, “He is most likely affecting your own work as well. It’s a good thing I am available to assist you with studying and classes or else I suspect that your grades would be poorer.”

 

“I uhm don’t think we’re supposed to judge our friends based on utilitarianism Luna.” She finally said.

 

We glanced back at Harry and Ron, “What should we judge them by?”

 

She shrugged, “I don’t really know they are just friends. I guess we just accept them and work with them. I mean unless they really do something horrible to you and then maybe I guess it might be over, but I don’t think a bit of jealousy should come between them.”

 

Well honestly it was very difficult for Luna to be friends with Harry, Ron, and Ginny, but apparently if Hermione was correct she should accept them I suppose that meant I should accept them too, but honestly they were nothing at all like Hermione or Luna to me and it was hard to think of them as ‘my’ friends. Unlike Hermione who seemed to be a perfect mesh with Luna and I. “Okay Hermione, thanks for the advice. I’m not really used to having friends.”

 

She shrugged, “Me either, so I’m still learning too I guess.”

 

Ron and Harry came over to us then and somehow convinced us to join them in the shop. Glancing around at the items it seemed to me that there was indeed room for improvement. Maybe adding a win in this competition wouldn’t be so bad for Luna and my future?

 

Next up in our outing with Hermione, Harry, and Ron was a stop for some butterbeer. Luna and I ordered corn juice instead, but we did drink and have a semi enjoyable time with the others. We arrived back in Hogwarts later and went to our room.

 

Inside we looked at our dragon egg sitting there and decided to figure it out instead of pondering more on the strange nature of friendship. We try opening the shell of the egg and hear high pitched squealing. We close it up and think about that. Dolphin? No probably not, maybe merperson or the like I think. We grab the egg and take it into a small bath tub. The few times we’ve had a bath instead of a shower before this we’ve ended up having to have a cold shower since sometimes our own naked body makes us feel hot and excited. The egg puts something of a damper on a need for a cold shower and I must say and that’s not a bad thing either, because really who has a thing for sex with an egg?

 

The images that come to my mind are much too disturbing to relate. Luckily we are able to ignore them because when the egg goes in the water it speaks. Honestly though it’s much too simple of a clue. Something we value most will be taken from us and we’ll have to rescue it or else we’ll never get it back. See there’s that lovely wizarding world we love so much. Someone thought to themselves that it was just a brilliant plan to use dragons and now kidnapping. I almost wonder if the third task will be walking against the light or straight up murder.

 

There’s a small problem here though because what if the someone who created this task is Dumbledore? Harry is friends with Hermione and so am I. Wouldn’t this be yet another way for him to kill her? We spent the night after that thinking of ways to keep her safe.

 

We may be tired and worn out come morning, but we have a plan. We get through our classes and on look through some of my blood ritual books and other items that might be considered “dark” inside we find something that could work. We perform the ritual the next evening and then head down to breakfast in the morning.

 

Our right hand has the powered runes and we’re waiting for just the right moment as Hermione sits at a table we head over quickly. Purposefully we tangle our feet and direct our fall at the table and slamming into it so that the side of our nose makes a loud **CRACK** against it. The pain is amazingly intense as the cartilage snaps and goes sideways into the tender flesh of our nose.

 

We aimed perfectly and there’s a brief gap in our memory. Then Hermione is picking us up from the ground, “Luna are you okay?”

 

Pain sparkles through our head and we touch the nose. It is bleeding and the blood hits the runes on our hand activating the magic from the ritual we already prepared last night. “Could use some help up.”

 

Hermione is helping us to our feet and we touch her wrist with a bloody finger reciting the last bit of the ritual even as she says, “We need to get you to the nurse.”

 

We nod and allow ourselves to be helped to the Nurse. Hermione has to go to class and we are given a healing potion and then head to class as well happy with the full knowledge that no matter where Hermione goes we will be able to apparate to her, even if someone has put up anti-apparition wards. Blood magic done right can save a life or destroy one, I don’t care how dark people think it might be, because I promise you that we would use it ten times over to keep our friend safe.

 

**************************

 

Luna and I are in the great hall thinking about me or the other me. Let’s call him Voldemort shall we? We’re wondering how many Horcruxes he’s made and where they might be. I know it’s not exactly our job to be out getting rid of these things, but even studying has limits and we’re a bit bored by school work so this is something of a thought experiment. We’re quite fond of those and besides, if we go by my theory of stupid I’m betting he found objects of value to him and then hid them in places of import. Something like getting a suitcase and making the combination 12345.

 

Interestingly enough many of his followers apparently got off by suggesting they were _Imperiused_ and I would have said that’s ludicrous, but maybe they just weren’t evil enough for their stupidity to take them down. Unlike others of his followers who are now in Azkaban. We know the Malfoys had the diary with me in it and we know he hid the Gaunt ring in the Gaunt shack. I doubt he knew it had the resurrection stone on it because he’d have used that. I remember a beach we sometimes went to in the summer. The Orphanage took us there and it was just lovely. Was there a cave? Maybe there was a “Yule Ball!”

 

We look up and yes there is Dumbledore making an announcement. “The four champions will be honored at the Yule Ball this year as well and I hope we all enjoy the festivity. Do remember that only fourth year and above, excepting Miss Lovegood, may go to the ball and don’t forget that you should bring a date.”

 

A date? Who they hell are we going to ask on a date. We don’t even like boys that way to begin with or at least not in a dating sort of way. A name hits me in the center of my mind. Hermione we like Hermione. That’s an insane thought and yet it follows from every feeling we’ve had this year and even back into the past. Somewhere along the line we fell in love with her.

 

We should ask her to the ball. I know the wizarding world frowns on the type of feelings Luna and I have, but then again I don’t care. The wizarding world needs to change and why not start with this? The only issue will be what to do if/when she declines. Well I suppose we’ll just hit that bridge when we come to it. I hope starting off with a metaphor on crashing won’t hurt our chances. Merlin we are nervous and we haven’t even started to get our courage up yet. I wonder what it will be like when we do?

 

**************************

 

There she is a pretty brown haired witch and muggle born. I should hate her because of that, but maybe I’ve learned something about that these days. I guess I have even if some part of me still says we can go kill a few muggles and no one will care. It’s just not worth it and really it’s stupid. I know for sure that stupid plans or even what might seem like clever, read utterly stupid, plans will go wrong. This seems to be truer when magic is involved and even more especially when those plans are “evil”. That doesn’t make me exactly good I don’t think. I’m not being good because I want to be, but instead because I don’t like the consequences otherwise and wouldn’t want to be discomfited by them.

 

Luna is, of course, on the other side. She wants to be good except when a prank is happening on someone she thinks has done wrong, which is in a way, still good. I enjoy being with Luna, but we are different people even if we live in the same body. Living in the same body is in and of itself somewhat nice, because there’s always someone else here to share time with a lovely blonde haired girl with blue eyes.

 

There’s something sad to be said here that I can only think of rubbing female parts against her. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I wonder how I missed this in my male body. I’ve done some reading and most of the books suggest that sixteen year old boys ought to be rather horny and yet when I was one I never thought in this direction. That means I have no reference point for doing things except for with Luna’s body and I certainly don’t envision doing them with a boy. Luna sometimes does, but I try to avoid those day dreams and she seems to be perfectly happy envisioning other girls too.

 

I fill my head with endless nonsense because that’s all I can do now. My thoughts race into what happens next and there is no answer. No easy set way to know how things will go from here, except one thing will be certain. No matter how she feels Hermione is our friend both of ours and oh look there she is, “Hello Hermione, thanks for taking the time to come see me here this evening.” Luna smiles at Hermione and I smile with her.

 

“Anytime Luna, we’re friends. I didn’t need any help with homework, did you have a question?” It’s not Saturday and it isn’t our usual study time for Arithmancy so she looks a bit perplexed. Possibly she’s perplexed by the very idea that Luna might have a question about schoolwork and well she should since we barely ever have one for her because Luna is way beyond the current coursework. Merlin, by my reckoning we’ve gone past most all of the Hogwarts course work and at this point we’d pass any of the tests with perfect marks.

 

“No, well yes I have a question, but not about schoolwork.” She’s nervous and so am I our heart is pounding like a sparrow trying to escape its cage.

 

Hermione smiles her perfect white toothed smile. “What’s the question Luna?”

 

Here it comes, slow yourself down Luna. Take a breath and then enunciate, “Will you go to the Yule Ball with me as my date.”

 

Eleven words and then it seems like everything in the world comes to a screeching halt. Dust motes are stuck in the air as they float down to the ground. For one single moment we have done it and everything in the world is just waiting. It is all waiting on the knife’s edge of oblivion. Hermione’s head snaps back and she looks at us, really looks at us and it hits her that we aren’t kidding. We aren’t teasing, that we want to take her on a date one school girl with another. She pauses to think, smart girl Hermione. “Luna, I didn’t know you were interested in me like that.”

 

A slow nod and the words come out as if time itself refuses to let them come out at all. One word comes after the next, “You are the brightest and loveliest witch I know of course I feel this way. I know it’s hard and everyone will talk and so much more can go wrong, but I had to ask. I have to know.”

 

She looks at us sadly with eyes that suggest she is in real heavy pain. A small tear is at the side of her left eye and she speaks, “Oh Luna! I’m so sorry . . . I well I’m sorry, but I can’t say yes Luna. I’m not . . . well . . . I like boys.”

 

Teenage girls aren’t pretty when they cry and I refuse to let her see us as anything but pretty. I help Luna suck it in. Suck in what has become utter pain and massive devastation and I put a smile on our face. “I understand Hermione. I wasn’t sure if you were like I am, but I wanted to ask. I hope it won’t change anything between us and that we will still be friends.”

 

Hold it in; hold it in because the tears are just at the edges of our eyes. If we don’t blink we can keep them from dripping down our cheeks. Hold still and keep a tight rein on everything damn it! Just hold everything down for a little bit longer. Hermione can’t know just how much this hurts we don’t want her to see. Let her think maybe she’s hurt us some, but not that she’s shattered our entire world. We need to leave her with that because she’s our friend and Luna wouldn’t want to hurt our friend so we need to keep it together. “Of course Luna, I’ll always be your friend. I’ll always be your very best friend and you will be mine.”

 

“Thanks Hermione, I have to go now. I’ll see you some other time.” Done, those are the last words we need here. We get up and walk away slow and steady, don’t run just yet, let her hear us being okay, don’t let her see how much it hurt.

 

Okay we’ve gone far enough silencing charm and scream.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made up Luna's wand wood and core. Ms. Rowling never mentions what the first wand is made of.


	6. Chapter 5

I would rail against the universe because it isn’t fair, but I always knew that. There is no fair in this world we all must eke out our survival with the tools we have. Some of us start out with none and are given powerful magic to cope while others start out with more and torment those with none. The tables get turned and the second group thinks it is unfair that the “Freak” has cowed them and can make them do what he wants. It was never fair and I always knew that always knew I would have to take what I wanted from the world. Now I know better. Now I know that no matter how powerful you become you can still loose that power by being foolish enough to trap yourself in a diary. I know that no matter how much you desperately want something that sometimes you can’t have it.

 

Now I know what Love is. In the past I had discounted it as being nothing didn’t even think it really existed, but now I know. I know how much it can hurt and rend and how beautiful it can be at the same time. I didn’t know that you could survive through this much pain and I didn’t know that just studying with Hermione would make it hurt a little bit less while at the same time hurting more. I wish I could say I loved my mother, but now I know I never did. No one had ever loved me really until Luna came along. I say that with honesty now Luna loved me and I loved her back and now we are together sharing one mind and body. I also know that Luna herself never had much luck with love either ever since her mother died.

 

We grieved about Hermione, but we could go on with her as friends we would live through it even if it hurt sometimes. Of course, we still needed to take someone to the Yule Ball. I just didn’t feel like asking anyone else and neither did Luna. Let the event come and maybe we’d just say we forgot to ask someone. At this point I think we would rather go alone. “Hey, Luna can I talk to you for a bit?”

 

Hmm what was that? Oh it was Harry Potter. “Sure Harry let’s go talk. By the way did you want me to hurt your chances of winning by telling you how to listen to your egg?”

 

Harry took our hand and we followed him into a quiet hall. “Sure Luna, I don’t mind if you hurt my chances of winning by telling me how to open my egg.”

 

He looked like he was humoring us, but we didn’t mind. “Put it in the tub, now what did you want to talk to me about? I know your friend Ron has red handitis, but the tuber worms will go away if he just uses his other hand on his male parts.”

 

He looked uncomfortable which was something of the plan. After all no teenage boy wants to think about his best mate doing that unless of course he wants to think about it and envision it, but Harry probably was on the other side of the fence as it were. “No . . . no, I ahhm wanted to ask if you had a date for the Yule Ball?”

 

Well there was something. Harry Potter just asked me to the Yule Ball. Okay technically he asked Luna, but we do share a body mostly she shares it and I enjoy the ride. Still here I am part of the madman that killed his family and left him and orphan and we’re going to go on a date. I almost laughed luckily Luna held it in, but she did say, “Of course Harry Potter I’ll go with you to the Yule Ball.”

 

**************************

 

Luna agreed with me that if we had known we were going to sit anywhere near Ron Weasley and his eating, that we would have immediately declined this invitation. By Merlin where is he putting it all? That’s his seventh, no eighth sandwich and crumbs are just everywhere. I give his date a sympathetic look and she rolls her eyes. Surely he ate breakfast and lunch right? If so how was he shoveling this food into his mouth like that?

 

Onto some other subject before we end up vomiting. Hermione came into the ball in the most gorgeous silver gown and her hair had been done up perfectly. We practically fell in love all over again, but she came in on Victor Krum’s arm, I could have killed him on the spot. I didn’t, of course, because really Azkaban has horrible room service. On the other hand I was going to beat him in the next challenge and the one after that. When people thought of Tri-Wizard losers his name was going to be at the top of the list.

 

Interestingly enough Harry and Ron’s attention had also gone to the lovely Hermione Granger. Perhaps my heart wasn’t the only one broken tonight. “I say we take his broom and shove it up his arse.”

 

Harry looked at me agape and laughed. Ron laughed too, but looked much more ready to help me perform the deed. “Funny Luna, what did he ever do to you?”

 

“Harry, let’s just say he took my dreams from me shall we?” Harry shrugged as if he didn’t understand and began talking about Quidditch. Well at least it allowed my mind to wander although I did take a moment to mentally remind myself that it was a Wizard’s sport and thus must, by definition, be utterly moronic. Why have snitches at all? It’s worth so many points that the team which catches it will inevitable win and if they don’t win then even without the snitch they certainly never would. I personally think we ought to get rid of the stupid snitch and the game would be fine. But, of course, that would make sense.

 

Harry talked about his game and we pretended to be interested. We got up a few times and danced and then sat back down. We ignored Ron’s awful eating some more and we mingled with some other guests who wanted to see us. All in all it was the most mundane and boring night of our lives. Except that first glimpse of Hermione, when I saw her in that dress she was a true vision of beauty. Our heart nearly broke again in that very moment we saw her and yet we lived. We lived, but that single moment of her on the stairs will be etched into our memories for eternity.

 

**************************

 

For the second task Luna and I had found ourselves a neoprene wetsuit. We stood on a cold dock shivering in the wet air and wondered just what they had taken of ours that was so terribly valuable. Well there was only one possible thing wasn’t there? Hermione, because she was our friend, they didn’t know about the stone, and we hadn’t had all that much contact with Ginny this year. Well wouldn’t they be surprised when we rescued her in mere moments?

 

These thoughts went through our head even as Fluer walked up on the dock wearing a silver one piece bathing suit so we hardly noticed her full breasts and perky nipples. We entirely avoided thinking about her long smooth legs and lustrous blonde hair. Not a single thought went through our head about the juncture between her legs and how well her suit clung to her body nearly showing the details of what was underneath. We were worried about our friend Hermione after all and it would have been terribly inappropriate to gaze longingly after that French picture of feminine perfection while we were worried about our friend.

 

Even as I considered that we might both be lying to ourselves, “Go!” Someone shouted and Fluer was in the water. We blinked and chewed on our gillyweed before diving directly into the water. Flippered feet helped us dive quickly and once we were out of sight we apparated right to Hermione.

 

Nothing could be that easy though because chained to stones in the lake were Hermione, Ginny Weasley, Ronald Weasley, and some girl we’d never seen before. Which of them were we supposed to be rescuing?

 

Were we intended to rescue Ginny? I suspected that we were since Dumbledore had seen her in our mindscape and so he knew Ginny was our friend or at least technically. Ron was there for Harry Potter as his best friend. The girl we’d never seen before had blonde hair and a slight resemblance to Fluer Delacour so she must be there for the pretty French witch. That meant Hermione was there for Victor Krum, which pissed me off. No one else had arrived yet and we needed a plan, plus we needed an excuse. The excuse was easy enough and the plan followed right after it. Finding an extra rock we transfigured it into a large enough chest to fit all of the people chained here and then we went and began to free them.

 

The merpeople seemed to disagree with our plans to free all of the captives, but some simple stunners solved that problem and we went about putting all of them in our chest, the transfigured one not our breasts, which aren’t that huge. I begin to hope we’ll get bigger by next year and so does Luna, but we don’t have long to think about our current lack of larger mammaries because with all four people packed into the treasure chest like a pirate’s booty (I don’t know why my mind keeps giving me these sexual metaphors honest) we transfigured another rock into a rope and swam off. Well we swam off after adding a featherlight charm to the chest that is.

 

With a special propulsion spell I knew about from some ancient Egyptian texts we had a method on hand to get back fast. We arrived at the dock and used a levitation spell to move the chest there as well. We opened the chest and began pulling people out, people who were just then starting to regain consciousness. At the same time a ministry official, Bagcrud maybe, came over and began yelling at us. “What have you done? You can’t rescue all of them, you were supposed to rescue your own captive not everyone’s!”

 

Luna and I blinked our eyes and looked at him with our patented airy look of wonder, “Oh? Well the clue I received said that the thing I most value would be taken from me. I most value people’s lives so I thought they would all die if I didn’t rescue them.”

 

He sputtered, I mean literally sat there trying to begin a sentence and getting nothing out except for the beginning of a “b” sort of sound. We smiled at him and looked to the contest judges with a wide honest smile that I could never replicate on my own. “Is it wrong to value all life? I think it would be rather terrible if I had only rescued one person and left the others to die.”

 

“You silly girl! No one was actually going to die! Now you’ve ruined the task!” This man clearly lacked volume control.

 

We simply shrugged at him and transfigured our chest into a chair and sat in it. “Well I don’t think you need to yell. Really I was just following the instructions given to me by my egg. If you had wanted me to save only one person you should have said so. You might have also mentioned that no one was actually going to die.”

 

Dumbledore and the other judges were near us now and he looked at us with an eye twinkle. I batted aside his attempt to probe our thoughts even as he said, “She is rather young sir, and I don’t think we could expect that she would think of that sort of thing.”

 

The other judges seemed to be agreeing with him even as Fluer came back onto the dock bleeding from her arm. She saw the young blonde girl sitting with Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all talking together and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a rather amazing sigh a heave of two perfect orbs with two points on them that went up and down. She rushed to the young girl and encompassed her in a hug and Luna and I could only imagine how that sort of hug must have felt.

 

“You really shouldn’t stare Luna.” We looked up from our seat and saw Hermione there. There was a pang of an ache in our heart, but we smiled back at her and took her hand.

 

“Oh, was I staring? Sorry Hermione, but you know how it is with me.” Hermione nodded and patted our shoulder. Then Ginny came over and we were hugged by Hermione.

 

Hermione switched with Ginny , “Thanks for saving me Luna, I know we haven’t exactly been best mates this year what with all that studying you do and the way you sort of space out when I talk about Quidditch. Still, thanks a ton!”

 

Ginny Weasley has a rather strong grip and we were lucky to finally end the hug with all of our ribs intact. “Oh it’s no problem Ginny; I didn’t want anyone at all to die, although apparently they were lying about that part. Seems a bit unfair if you ask me, how was I to know someone wasn’t going to be killed if they let me think someone was?”

 

By this point Harry and Victor were also on the docks and the Judges were conferring among themselves. Hermione went over to Victor while Ginny and Ron went over to Harry leaving Luna and I sitting in our transfigured chair. We stood up and began to walk towards Harry and the others. Our way was suddenly blocked by Fluer, “Miss Lovegood, I wiz to apologize for all ze bad things I have said about you. This is my sister Gabrielle and you have saved her life when I could not.”

 

“Oh, well I couldn’t just, mph” The sentence was stopped by our third hug of the day a rather amazing hug and then a kiss on either of our cheeks.

 

“No I insist that I am in your debt and that you have done a great service for the Delacour family. No matter what happens in this tournament know that you are my friend and that you are invited to come visit us this summer.” She spoke with more of an accent than that, but I understood her. Even so we were standing next to the swimsuit clad woman who had just hugged and kissed us and our cheeks were burning red.

 

We could have really used another dip in that freezing cold lake right about then. Trying to get over our embarrassment we glanced over to where Fleur and her sister had gone to talk with other people and then glanced over to Hermione. That gentle ache was still there. I guess love is like that, even when you are desperately attracted to one pretty girl you can still love another one.

 

We looked back at Fluer and decided that before anything went any further we would tell her we were attracted to her. Better to get that out in the open before we became actual friends or fell in love again.

 

**************************

 

An extra second task was not needed and the judges just gave us scores. We ended up coming in first with Harry and Victor tying for second and Fluer coming in last because the Grindylows had attacked and wounded her making her retreat. We had actually seen the injury there when she got out of the water too.

 

With our last place showing in the first task and our first place showing in the second we were effectively in third place so far. There was still one last task and Luna and I were determined to come in first now, especially if we wanted to be pushed forward a year.

 

We thought about simply passing our wizarding tests and graduating, but what would we do then? Hard question there and I didn’t have an answer. We could study the nature of magic some more. We could experiment with the resurrection stone and get ourselves killed or worse. We could work on changing the entire world, but before that happened Luna and I desperately needed to study Muggle engineering.

 

With that project currently out of the question there wasn’t much coming to me and I guess that’s to be expected. I used to want to become the most powerful wizard in the world, to rule Magical Britain, push down the muggle born to where they belonged and maybe kill off a crap load of muggles for fun. None of that really appealed to me anymore.

 

That pretty much nixed the idea of attempting to simply graduate out of Hogwarts, but not the idea of moving up a year. At the very least the subject matter would be a miniscule amount more difficult. As for our future, I guessed that we would figure it out when we got there.

 

At a later date we found Fluer heading into Lunch. Maybe we could catch her and tell her certain things. We took her hand and spoke, “Fluer would you mind having Lunch with me?”

 

She shook her head, “I would be happy to have lunch wiz you Luna.”

 

We found a place to sit and I switched to French, “We really haven’t had much of a chance to get to know each other. I know you know my name, but I haven’t really told you about me.”

 

Fleur smiled, there was one feature which was not quite as beautiful as Hermione, and “Oh you speak French! I am so happy to speak with someone else who speaks French and you don’t even have that bad of an accent!”

 

We blushed a bit, “Oh yes, there are a number of French books about magic and other languages too. I had to learn the other languages if I wanted to read the books. Translations are very often not as good as the real thing.”

 

“How many languages do you speak Luna?” Her eyes were on us like we were some sort of prize she had won.

 

I had to count up in my head since any language I knew Luna knew and then I just decided to think aloud, “Well there’s Latin, Greek, German, Norse, French, Spanish, Swedish, and Italian. I read Egyptian hieroglyphs and have also just begun Chinese, but haven’t gotten very far yet.”

 

Chinese was very difficult and there weren’t many resources here in Hogwarts. Doing any studying of it was slow going, but everyone needs a hobby or fifteen. Fleur’s mouth made a sort of ‘O’ shape, “Oh wow I just know French, English, and Spanish. Plus you have a very good handle on transfigurations and you are competing with people who are all older than you.”

 

“Thank you Fluer, I am hoping that they will let me move up a year if I win. I suppose I should apologize to you for calling the tournament a farce.” Not that it wasn’t one, but more that it felt like we were insulting her in the past tense now.

 

“No,” She stopped us, “No, Luna I think you may have been right. They kidnapped my sister for this, they had us face dragons. Yes, I wished to compete and show I was the best, but perhaps I did not think it would be this dangerous. They had said they were making it less dangerous, but now I am thinking that they did not know a thing about what they were doing.”

 

She was right of course and there was no guarantee that we would be okay. Just because wizards who did “evil” were seemed to be doomed to be stopped by their own stupidity did not mean that magic always kept wizards who weren’t “evil” from getting themselves killed because of their stupidity. Magic was stupid like that and don’t tell me that it doesn’t have some sort of puerile sentience. Luna and I are studying it and so far our theories are bearing fruit. “Oh, well . . .”

 

We really didn’t know what to say to her after that. Luckily she responded by telling us about herself, “Well my father is Alexandre and mother is Apolline and Gabrielle is my sister. I am also quarter-Veela.”

 

She looked at us as if we should be disturbed by that. “Does this not bother you? You are not worried that I will steal the boys. I know they look and my allure is hard to resist.”

 

Oh she was worried that we’d get jealous because a boy we liked might become smitten with her. We laughed. “What is so funny about this Luna?”

 

She was concerned now and we smiled at her. “Oh you don’t have to worry about that Fluer. I’m attracted to girls.”

 

She looked a bit flustered now, “Oh, well I don’t think the allure works like that. I mean if it did you would be . . .”

 

We shrugged, “I think you are quite attractive Fluer, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. So you would know that I can be attracted to women, but that we can be friends. There doesn’t have to be any difficulty between us because of it right?”

 

Did we sound desperate there? Probably, but then again we had very few other friends one of whom we had generally been ignoring this year, the other of whom had broken our heart and the other one might not have even remembered we were supposed to be friends. That plus Harry was the sum total of our friends and while we certainly had ulterior motives Fluer seemed nice enough and she was outgoing enough to ask us to be friends. That sealed the deal for Luna and for me as well on a tentative basis.

 

I wonder if we ought to work on this whole friendship thing, but it’s rather tedious and neither Luna nor I have the right social skills. Well unless we want to be trailed by a pack of thugs who obey us out of fear and respect for our utter power. “Oh no Luna, it will not be a problem. I think it will be nice for us to be friends without worrying about any jealousy because of boys.”

 

Right so let’s put her in the friend category shall we. Luna and I tell her about Luna’s past about Xenophilius and her mother. Fleur tells us more about her family and their place in France repeating her invitation for us to stay for a time during the summer. We agree to that pretty quickly, days on the beach watching Fluer in her swimsuit, that sounds like a lovely plan and fodder for hundreds of nighttime fantasies.

 

**************************

 

Strangely enough it was thinking about the beach that brought Luna and I out to the same beach that the Orphanage had taken me to so many years ago. It was another Hogsmeade weekend and we had begged off from Hermione, Ginny, and Fluer saying we wanted to study up on some information we received on Fluttering Fillyflies and maybe try and catch some. Since all those people thought that said task would be unsuccessful and boring we ended up with time to ourselves.

 

Thus we were here at this beach looking for the cave. It wasn’t terribly hard to find considering the muggle repelling ward. Inside was a boat and a lake full of inferi. Across the lake was a small island with a goblet on it. Simple enough since the tide was out we hit the lake bottom with some drilling hexes until the water drained out. After that we used Fiendfyre to kill all the inferi. A transfiguration stopped up the drilled out section of the lake and we produced water to refill it.

 

No so quick, but it was done. We took the boat across to the isle and used a spell to shatter the container and dumped out the horrid mix that was in the goblet to grab a locket. We realized immediately that this could not possibly be a Horcrux, the lack of pain disgust etcetera was a gigantic clue. So we opened the locket and inside was a letter.

_"To the Dark Lord,_

_I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more."_

_R.A.B_

 

I personally had no clue who this R.A.B might be and Luna didn’t either. He must have been a follower of mine/his before Voldemort got himself killed by a baby. We left the note and the locket in the cave, took the boat across the lake and apparated back to Hogwarts. All in all it was a bit disappointing, here I was thinking we’d get rid of another one of the Horcruxes and we were left with a note saying that R.A.B was planning on destroying it.

 

We didn’t know if he had actually destroyed it and in all honesty I didn’t have any other clues about where I/he would have put any more Horcruxes. At this point someone’s probably wondering why we’re even destroying these things anyway. But, the answer is pretty simple, if one of these things gets into a body it’s going to come after me. That and well I really would prefer not to watch another incarnation of me being utterly moronic again. Really, it would simply behoove me to end his existence and from what I can tell killing these things counts as “good” so magic is on my side. Really who doesn’t want to be on the winning side?

 

We ended up back in the castle reading more about Voldemort’s reign of terror. Who knows maybe something in there would give us some clues about where he might have hidden his other Horcruxes.

 

**************************

 

Sadly we hadn’t gotten very much more information and Luna and I weren’t planning on wandering about the countryside where I/Voldemort had been before the war at least not until the summer and maybe not even then. I know I shouldn’t really think about him as me, but he does have part of my soul or I am part of his. Anyway it’s hard not to think of him as me although it is getting a bit easier as I start thinking more of Luna as me. Sometimes I worry that maybe I did destroy her soul and take her over just keeping the memories, but Luna assures me that did not happen. I guess I’ll just have to take her word for it and besides, would there be any difference?

 

Classes continued and tests were taken. We scored perfectly on all of them and turned in some rather amazing assignments if I do say so myself. Our professors, even Snape, seemed to recognize that we were prodigies. We let them continue to think so and enjoyed our study times with Hermione and Fleur. We also enjoyed lunches, breakfasts, and dinners with them as well. I’m pretty sure we lost Ravenclaw house points for sitting where we weren’t supposed to, but as long as no detentions were assigned we didn’t care. By Merlin I think there may have been a few detentions too, but we certainly didn’t notice.

 

Harry Potter became a bigger part of our circle of friends too and it was when he was talking about his godfather one lunch that we made the connection, “Harry, do you know if Sirius Black had any brothers or sisters maybe with the initials R.A.B?”

 

“I don’t know Luna, it’s not like we can connect all that much since the Ministry is still after him.” He seemed a bit down about that and I couldn’t blame him.

 

“Well they are in league with the Heliopaths, so I wouldn’t expect quick justice Harry. It’s really too bad that the rat was never caught.” The rat indeed, Peter Pettigrew, still hadn’t been found and since he could be a rat anytime he wanted that meant he could be literally anywhere that a rat can be.

 

The whole criminal on the run thing was what kept Sirius and Harry from communicating very much. Unfortunate for Harry and unfortunate for our investigation into whether or not R.A.B was related to Sirius Black, but there were other fonts of useful information and lunch had ended.

 

Sometimes I think that I’m not really narrating every little bit of my life, but then again it’s not really necessary. Luna agrees with me and says she generally only narrates when things are somewhat important. I tend to agree with her and so I’ve been glossing past days in class, nights in bed sleeping, nights in bed doing other things before sleeping, fantasies about Hermione changing her mind, fantasies about Fluer and the French beaches, and a whole host of other events. It’s somewhat interesting first hand, but none of it requires narrating to myself. Of course, now I’ve done that, but the idea is still there and it’s not like I spent the time going over everything in excruciating detail.

 

Suffice it to say time passed and the third task was coming up. This time they gave us a bit more information beforehand and let us know that it would be a maze. We’d have to get through the maze and the first person to touch the Tri-Wizard’s cup would win the tournament. Our standings based on the previous two tasks would give us an advantage or disadvantage on exactly how long we would have to wait before entering the maze. I wondered if the same person who invented Quidditch had decided the rules for this tournament, but then realized that the person here had actually had a few more brain cells than the person who invented the snitch capture win.

 

Fluer, Harry, Victor and Luna shook hands, and then we all wished each other luck and Harry went into the maze first. Victor went after him and we waited with Fleur until it was our turn. There wasn’t much in the way of chatter while we waited, but that’s understandable as Fluer and we were all nervous I’m sure. Luna’s name was called and we went into the maze. I do have to admit that this challenge was actually fun.

 

The first thing we hit was a pack of Inferi, instead of _Fiendfyre_ we used a fire whip and removed their heads. Next up were some acromantulas, but we just used cutting curses at higher power to remove their legs, then walked up to their heads and blew them apart with blasting hexes. The only major obstacle was a Dementor.

 

Seriously, there was an actual Dementor chasing us and we ran towards the center of the maze. There were other challenges in our way, but we went through them as we retreated from the creature. I was tempted to try _Fiendfyre_ , but this was much too public for such a dark spell. Luna wanted to try the Patronus spell, but it wasn’t something I had ever really practiced and we were having a hard time finding a happy thought here. So we ran and ran towards the center of the maze demolishing things as we went. We hit the center and a voice called out, _“Expecto Patronum!”_

 

A pure white stag rushed past us and directly at the dementor that had been chasing us. That was rather well done, maybe we actually ought to practice that spell. I’m sure if Luna and work together we can find some happy thoughts right? The caster of the Patronus spoke, “Luna, are you all right.”

 

We recognized the voice, “Oh yes, thank you Harry I’m fine. Oh drat, there’s the Tri-wizard’s cup too.”

 

We pointed at the cup where we had seen it and Harry looked where we were pointing and said, “It’s okay you get it then.”

 

Luna was about to start an argument with him that would be all about which of them was the more noble. I could feel her wanting to tell him to go get it and he’d tell her to get it. I decided to cut this argument off at the pass and Luna agreed with my solution, “How about together Harry?”

 

He shrugged a bit and we walked over to the Tri-Wizard cup together. On the count of three we put our hands on it and wouldn’t you know the damned thing was a portkey. A hissy sort of voice said, “Get rid of the spare!”

 

Honestly I don’t think I’ve been that close to the other side of a killing curse. Luna and I watched it pass just by us as we rolled out of the way. A quick glance at a tree and we apparated there. Let’s see some other fourteen/sixteen year old do that without splinching themselves! The caster of the killing curse spoke saying, “She’s disappeared master!”

 

“Don’t worry about her then!” Was that Professor Moody? I wouldn’t have put him at the site of an attempted killing. I certainly wouldn’t have thought he’d be tying Harry Potter up and dragging him over to a giant cauldron. Sure his teaching style was a little more towards Dark Arts than defense against them, but really one ought to know the dark arts to actually defend against them. Besides which I was relatively sure that Moody had fought against Voldemort. Why would he be tying Harry Potter up?

 

All of this thinking wasn’t doing us much good, but Luna and I were disillusioned and a pudgy sort of man with buck teeth went about starting a ritual. So it wasn’t Professor Moody then. Who was this guy and what was that strange baby like thing in his arms? Even from here I could feel it as a disgusting miasma of utter filth.

 

A Disgusting miasma of utter filth now where have I felt that before? Oh well that sucks, it’s got to be another soul bit and this one’s trying to do what to Harry Potter? We sneak closer to the scene pondering our next move. There are no wards around the cauldron, but that pudgy rat faced guy is looking about as he does his preparations. Also, there seem to be people in white masks coming from the woods. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that those are Deatheaters. Sitting here while these people, servants of Voldemort, gather isn’t exactly a valid option.

 

Here’s your chance Thom kill the baby thing and claim them as your own! They look like such upstanding people and will so surely follow some young blonde girl right? Yeah sarcasm isn’t cutting it here, but speaking of cutting. Merlin! Did the rat faced guy just cut off his own limb! That’s some serious crap right there, but we need a plan and paying too much attention to the goings on over there is keeping us from acting.

 

Okay we can apparate to Hermione, but if they are putting up an anti-apparation ward then we won’t be able to take Harry. Harry probably can’t apparate on his own right now so we just need something to make into a portkey. I know the distance of an anti-portkey ward without very powerful ward stones, which you have to power on site, is much shorter than the anti-apparation wards will be with the same limitations so let’s go with the portkey for sure. We’ll need our socks and shoes to run so no. Bra, sure we can remove that.

 

There is an arcane method by which a female can remove her bra without removing the shirt above it. Luna and I know this technique and shan’t be sharing it here. Suffice it to say that one bra had been removed and was being made into a port key.

 

Okay done with that and now look to see if Harry is still okay and yes he is. Then we need a distraction oh wow that’s a pretty deep cut into Harry’s arm and he’s bleeding into the cauldron. Rat faced guy, Pettigrew maybe, is dumping the baby thing into the cauldron now. Steam pours out and covers the area; well I guess that’s going to be the best distraction I can get.

 

We’re about to apparate to Harry before the anti-apparation ward goes off when I feel someone has cast it and a ward against portkeys down there. Well double crap, I guess we have to run. We cast a cutting curse on the side of our robe and we run, trip over someone who was in the way, and come to a tumbling halt at Harry Potter himself. No time to worry about it get up Luna, we get up and cut his bonds. Damn he’s heavy, “Come on Harry we need to go!”

 

We need to move sometime before the mist leaves us open for what twenty killing curses? We can’t dodge them all, thankfully he’s helping us now and we’re moving again. Unfortunately the mist is dying down, and I’m pretty sure we vomited there somewhere. How can anyone stand to be near that thing? It’s like spoiled milk mixed with rancid beef or something. “Robe me!”

 

It was naked? Oh gross Luna, don’t even think about it too late, she did. We’ll never unsee that image now. “Stun her!”

 

Well at least it wasn’t twenty killing curses. We dodge and move along with putting up silent shield spells even as the stunning spells are being cast at us. Unfortunately dodging, casting, and carrying a boy who is heavier than you don’t go well together and we drop Harry on the ground. “Sorry Harry!”

 

We call out even as we note more spells coming our way. A bit of ancient arcane lore that few people know pulls up a full body shield and it shatters moments later under the onslaught. However, the shattering allows us to keep moving and then dive into a bit of undergrowth.

 

Into the bushes we move dodging another assortment of spells even as we toss back a blasting curse towards our foes. More running and more bushes give us enough cover to toss out a cutting curses and another blast that catch our last pursuers. With the last group of pursuers turned into a mess of bloody gore we take a few moments to catch our breath since there’s no one else left chasing us.

 

Harry is still back the way we came from. Okay now the hard part, turn! Right back to that grave yard place come on we can do it right? He’s stupid and evil so he’s got to lose . . . just not right away . . .

This entire rescue was a bad plan from start to finish that is for sure, but somehow we get our feet moving add another disillusionment and back towards where we dropped Harry.

 

“Going somewhere Harry Potter! I wouldn’t bother trying to find her the girl is assuredly dead by now.” Wrong at that you slimy worm he can’t hear us think that, but we do even as we peer out from a statue of an angel and see Harry. We can tell that he’s right at the end of the anti-port key wards someone put up while the anti-apparition wards go out further just like I knew they would. Harry turns to the horrible, disgusting, rancid, snakelike thing. “Come now let us duel Harry, like purebloods do.”

 

What the hell is this now? He’s got him right there with like twenty minions and they’re going to duel? If my rescue plan was stupid, then this duel plan is off the charts. Is Voldemort trying to win some sort of stupidest plan of the year award?

 

Well that just does it, if he’s going to be like that then I’m going to go rescue Harry again, but honestly Luna’s gibbering in fright here and I’m not that far behind. It was hard enough just walking back here and now we have to try and rescue him again?

 

The plan was just so bad to begin with, but what else did we have here? Come on Thom you basically died once and it wasn’t so bad just boring and insanity inducing. So what’s another death and this time without the boredom or insanity? Okay Luna let’s go do this thing.

 

Motivating ourselves we watch as Harry is bowing to the creature now and then even as they begin to cast their spells we start running to Harry, he’s stepped just outside the anti-portkey ward, maybe we’ll get lucky. An explosion knocks us off our feet, but it was just an explosion of air, not a spell directed at us. There’s a brilliant line of energy from Harry’s wand connecting him to the creature.

 

Merlin! I’ve never seen the effect that’s happening between Harry and Voldemort, a line of power connects them and two cages of energy surround them. Both of them are concentrating on something but I’m pretty sure this effect can’t last forever.

 

I see bit of energy slam from Harry’s side and into the rancid piece of filth fighting him. Things are coming out of the creature’s wand now, images of people he’s killed with the killing curse. There’s a young muggle girl looking so innocent and she looks right at us. Now I know her, those soft young brown eyes and short brown hair, she can’t be more than seven years old and she’s staring up at me in innocent wonder. Wonder that is cut short when I kill her.

 

I weep and tears pour from Luna’s eyes. That was my wand and I killed her, not the first person to die because of me, no she wasn’t. There were others the basilisk killed and I didn’t care, but now somehow I do. This girl standing there the first utterly cold blooded murder sits on my heart even as other images come from the wand. I don’t know those people, but I bet the creature did. Should we call it Voldemort? I suppose we should and that’s the last time I will ever associate myself with the name. He’s Voldemort, that thing out there fighting Harry Potter is Voldemort and me I’m Thom. Whatever piece of my soul he is I don’t care anymore. I don’t want to be associated with it not any part of it.

 

The cage around Harry looks like it is dissipating and somehow we move to the young boy fighting the creature. With our tears still pouring from our eyes we grab Harry Potter’s arm then we activate our port-key.

 

The two of us arrive outside Hogwarts' wards, much more powerful with those ward stones in place, we’re almost a mile out and just as we get into the wards Harry falls down again. Well at least they can’t track my portkey, but we still need to get Harry to Hogwarts. Spell, spell do we even have any power left? _“Levicorpus”_

 

I guess we had some power and so we pull his levitating body along with us trudge step, trudge step, pace by pace. It’s a really long walk, long and tiring and utterly exhausting. Still we see the maze and we walk towards it. The stands are in view and lots of nervous people are all about. Someone’s trying to calm the crowd, but they aren’t doing a good job. Harry wakes up just about then so Luna and I agree that he can carry us for a while it’s only fair. The ground looks soft and comfy, let’s lie down there and sleep.

 

**************************

 

Oh we’re being hugged it’s nice and soft and very Hermione. “I’m okay, just tired.”

 

Another hug and a kiss on our forehead, they aren’t speaking English. Maybe French? Yes that’s it, “I’m okay Fleur, just tired so very tired.”

 

Yet another hug and Luna recognizes it. “Daddy, I’m okay daddy. Hold me okay?”

 

I think he held us for a while there. Not my thing, but it made Luna happy so I won’t begrudge her that. We wake up in the Hogwarts infirmary. There’s a nurse here, still can’t remember her name, maybe Brundalick, who keeps telling us to lay back and take it easy, says we exhausted our magical core. I want to tell her to try blocking twelve stunners with an ancient shield spell and see how well she does especially after apparating twice, making a port-key, fighting through a maze, and more fighting. I don’t end up saying it and neither does Luna. That’s only because we end up doing some more sleeping though.

 

We wake up feeling much more refreshed a least until the Ministry official shows up. He has a name, but honestly it’s not important to me to remember it. Luna says, “Oh hello Mr. Bagperson”

 

I laugh to myself as he says, “That’s Bagman. Ludo Bagman and the Minister of Magic himself wants to talk to you.”

 

“He does? Is it about the bribes he’s taking? Because he really ought to just report that to my father at the Quibbler. I’m not doing interviews right now.” Did we know he was taking bribes for sure, nope. But really what fun is it to be Luna if we can’t have fun with it. Luna entirely agrees with that assessment and besides, Mr. Bagman went a delicious shade of angry red.

 

“No, Minister Fudge is on his way in and you’d best give him more respect young lady.” Did he really expect that from us? I hope not, or else he was going to be desperately disappointed.

 

Another officious looking person came in. I’m pretty sure he was the Minister of Magic and his name dropped right out of my head, but he’s not very important to me so it’s not worth my time to remember it anyway, “What happened in the graveyard Miss Lovegood?”

 

Oh now I understood. He was nervous, very nervous and they wanted a story to counter whatever Harry had said to them. Because, of course, Voldemort was dead and so whatever Harry said couldn’t possibly be true. Not if this guy wanted to keep his current position or at least not if he wanted to keep the position and any bribes from certain Pureblood families.

 

I had to admit here that Voldemort’s whole graveyard thing had been nearly intelligent right up until the personal duel at which point he dropped into the realm of astronomical stupidity. Here, oh what was his name, well the Minister of Magic, didn’t even start with a semi-intelligent plan. No, instead of thinking about anything clearly he dashed right for idiocy and tried to hold on with both hands even while it electrocuted him. “Well, Harry and I touched the cup. We appeared in a graveyard and someone tried to kill me with the killing curse. Do you want me to go through the entire scenario or just tell you that Voldemort is back?”

 

“I see that you are determined to back Harry Potter in his lies.” He was angry now. Look at that vein in his forehead throb. He should have a mediwitch or mediwizard check that out it might be the death of him some day.

 

Our response had to be careful though. “Sir, I am determined to tell the truth. If you don’t want to hear it you don’t need to be here or ask me questions that will get you the truth. Would you prefer to speak about your involvement with the Rotfang conspiracy?”

 

Apparently he wouldn’t, because he stalked out and slammed a door. Not long after that Dumbledore came into the room. Merlin, why do you feel this need to torture me? From one officious rat bag to another and now we have an old goat, “How are you feeling Luna.”

 

Much better when you’re not digging into our head thanks. We toss him out like garbage, “Fine sir, much better now that I had some rest.”

 

“You know you have a very strong mind for such a young girl. Very talented too I believe you might be one of the most gifted students we’ve had in these halls since Thom Riddle.” Searching for something old man? I wonder what you think you know.

 

It doesn’t matter though because we’re not going to give anything to you. We stay silent. “Harry tells me that Voldemort is back and that you rescued him from their duel. Did you want to add anything to that? Maybe tell me what happened?” I think that could be mistaken for concern in his voice. I bet other people buy it too, but we don’t. Not for a moment.

 

“Voldemort was there, a rat faced man and lots of other people, but they were wearing masks. I wondered why they were wearing masks; do you think they have pox? Maybe they were using medicine to cure their horrible disfigurements?” We look at him with one of our airy gazes. The most important facts have been delivered along with flights of fancy. He doesn’t need to know anything else.

 

He clears his throat, “Yes, well it was Peter Pettigrew. When you came back with Harry Alastor Moody tried to take him away, but apparently he was actually Bartemious Crouch Junior. He had been taking polyjuice potion. Thankfully we figured that out in time and saved Harry from him, then found the real Alastor Moody in one of his trunks.”

 

We slapped our palm onto our face. Really, really this is what we were working with? The same man who nearly kills Hermione almost gets his own pawn killed after the fact . . . no wait. He knew I bet he knew all about it and yet didn’t do anything until almost the end. I wonder if he was disappointed that Luna didn’t die, hell I wondered if maybe he was planning on Harry dying.

 

No, that didn’t make sense. He planned on the effect that Voldemort and Harry created. He knew or at least had a huge suspicion that it would be what happened. But how would Harry have survived after? Could the cup Harry and I touched have been a two way portkey?

 

My mind muddles it over. Harry arrives and the ritual happens, then the duel right next to where the cup was, and the effect from the two wands stunning Voldemort. Harry crawls to the cup and apparates back to the center of the maze where someone, Bartemious Crouch most likely, has removed the anti-portkey wards in just that area.

 

I stare at him and mentally smirk. He was trying to kill us and we foiled that plot. That look of concern we had seen was concern, but not for our welfare. Concern that his plan had gone wrong! We probably missed the same look on his face when we rescued Hermione at the lake.

 

Even as we lay silently thinking he patted our arm, “Dear child you’ve been through a great ordeal, but do get some rest.”

 

We did take his advice and in turn did not tell him that we would never be his dear child by feeding his own bedamned arm. It wasn’t quite a fair exchange. The Nurse, Popover? Felcher? No . . . well anyway she let our friends come see us later in the day. Fluer, Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Fleur’s sister Gabrielle all came in.

 

We received hugs from them all and related our experience. Harry then spoke from his perspective, “I thought you were dead with that killing curse Luna then Peter had me tied up and he was performing this ritual. You missed a few parts from your perspective, but you’re right it was scary.”

 

He shook his head, “When that mist came up I was expecting to die and suddenly there you were like a Gryffindor getting rid of those ropes and pulling me along.”

 

“Yeah well then I dropped you. Sorry about that Harry.” We apologized for that a second time today.

 

“No way Luna, they were all over you. I’ve never seen someone move like that and you were casting more than one spell at a time. It was just amazing and besides you came back and got me so thanks, really so much thanks.” He blushed some and had this really huge smile on his face.

 

Everyone in the room had big smiles and Ron said, “Luna Lovegood the hero who saved Harry Potter!”

 

Merlin! They all clapped at that. “No, no I’m no hero that’s Harry. He did that spell thing when he dueled Voldemort.”

 

There was almost a gasp and at the same time there wasn’t. They knew who we had faced. Harry said, “Oh no you were the hero today Luna.”

 

We put up a hand and smiled at him, “What say we share it today Harry just like the cup?”

 

Everyone laughed at that then we added, “What was that effect anyway? The one you and he made before we apparated out of there?”

 

“Apparently Voldemort and I have brother wands. Same wood, same core from the same Phoenix. Dumbledore said when two wands like that clash there’s a _Priori Incantatem_ effect.” Did he now? The last time I cast that spell it didn’t create a glowing cage around the wand or pull out a view of people murdered by the wand.

 

Yet another lie told to Harry, but we just said, “Oh? I hadn’t heard of that.”

 

Hermione spoke saying, “I looked it up and it is possible with such what they call brother wands. Usually the duelists have to cast at nearly the same time for it to happen. It’s also why most wands are made from entirely different cores.”

 

Fluer nodded, “I have heard of zis as well. So strange to be in the presence of people who have fought the Dark Lord and lived to say so. You were very brave Luna.”

 

“Not brave, just scared and I had to rescue Harry. Hermione would have killed him if he didn’t survive you know.” They laughed again.

 

It actually wasn’t that horrible even with Ron and Ginny there. The two of them and all their odious faults were actually beginning to grow on me. They had to leave soon after and we got some more rest. The last thing on my mind before sleeping was that next time, and I was sure there would be one, we wouldn’t be burdened by rescuing someone or any worries about playing fair. We’d killed some of his followers, but next time we would get more.

 

I almost laughed at that. Luna and I were fighting a war on two fronts now one against my own piece of rotting soiled soul and the other against Dumbledore who was himself against the very same creature. Odd how that worked, how we could have had an ally in either one of them if only they weren’t horrible horrible things that we’d never want to associate with on purpose.

 

The next day there was a ceremony and they gave Harry and us the Tri-Wizard’s cup. The first time there had ever been a tie for the prize and we split the 1,000 galleons too. The press was there including Xenophilius so Luna and I let him know that we would write the entire thing up for him and send it by owl. Then we told the Daily Prophet people that we had no comment and to read the Quibbler. At some point Harry began saying the same thing.

 

That evening we spent time writing up the entirety of the story, okay most of the story. We downplayed our own role and didn’t mention all the spells we cast and we played up Harry’s role. Honestly Luna and I knew that letting people know all the things we were capable of would make people who weren’t our friends wary of us and we didn’t want anyone thinking we were going to be the next Dark Lord/Lady. Also Voldemort could read too if we played up Harry he might not see us as a threat. Underestimation was what we needed here.

 

With Harry’s version added onto my own I believe that single article put the Quibbler out of its struggling position and back into business. Luna’s father was quite happy with his sales and we agreed to send him more articles than usual from Hogwarts. Yet another project to do in our free time, but then again it wasn’t as if the schoolwork was all that hard.

 

There were more meals, and classes, and friendship gatherings. There were tests and Dumbledore himself said we deserved to be a grade level higher in the next year. He said that with a suspicious glance at us and I knew we had really come into his view now. But there was nothing for it. We weren’t going to just let Harry die.

 

Fluer joined Hermione and I on Saturdays. “Let me see those calculations, if you really want the spell to levitate as many items as you can it needs something else. Wait, look here you are not balancing the Arithmantic equation here.”

 

She was right and we fixed the equation. “Okay lets put it together then and add the incantation.” Hermione said and then followed the process flick, snap, swish and, “ _Alohamora Majora”_

 

Ten feathers lifted into the air. Chalk up a new spell and we three would have our names on it.

 

It was nice anyway and Fluer would never have to worry about stealing our boyfriend from us. I suspected she wouldn’t have to worry about stealing Hermione’s either if the way she looked at Harry was some indicator of things to come. Plus, Fleur found study guides about Chinese somewhere, now there was something to dig into. Far Eastern magic still wasn’t well known to us, but if we could learn the language we could learn their magic.

 

He was still out there though, plotting and planning. Even at a distance we could feel his slimy filth walking the world and we itched to use a killing curse to end that abomination. There was more than him out there though. I had been in the Diary, another had been in the ring, one had been in Harry Potter, there was a locket out there somewhere, and how many more? Three maybe? Seven is one of those powerful numbers. Harry Potter would have been the seventh I think at least if the entire process hadn’t killed Voldemort.

 

I try and put myself in the mindset. Okay let’s kill muggles today and her face is there. That little girl her shade came from his wand, but she was looking at me. She wanted to know why I had done it and what could my answer be. I wanted to be the most powerful wizard in the world. I wanted to rule Magical Britain and more. I wanted to kill muggles because muggles are evil disgusting creatures.

 

I’m sorry, so sorry. I wish I had been smarter, wish I had seen how foolish and stupid my ideas were before I went through with them. I could blame magic or the wizarding world or even the orphanage, but none of that changes anything. I did it and I am to blame and it can never be taken back. That’s why we have to find the Horcruxes and destroy them and that’s why we have to kill the creature. Because he’ll do it again, he might even be doing it right now. As long as he’s out there I feel responsible because I was once him.

 


	7. Chapter 6

The first thing we did on the Train ride home was find Fred and George Weasley. "Okay so I have a contract written up. I can't own a business, but my father can until I am of majority so the charter for our company will be in his name. We'll need a name and we'll need somewhere to build and we have four hundred galleons left to work with."

"Actually Harry gave us his winnings to start a business so make that nine hundred and he's a partner." They said in a back and forth.

"Excellent we'll give him a share. Now you two want to run a Joke shop and I want to make some other items, but I think we can compromise right?"

The two nodded and we put down a blueprint. On paper it looked a lot like a small pair of muggle jet engines and basically it was. I hadn't spent parts of this year examining muggle science and physics for nothing and the plans for the older versions of jet engines were more than available enough. The only change for this engine would be its fuel source. Instead of filling the engines with gas I had marked up a set of runes that would apparate the air around the engines into the fuel compartment. Once inside the fuel compartment the air would be transfigured into pure liquid hydrogen and then it would be sent through the engine.

The twins stared at the blueprints and George spoke, "What is it for?"

We smirked and said, "Brooms. Strap a pair of these onto the back of any broomstick and it can potentially break the sound barrier."

"The sound what?" one said, "Barrier, Fred barrier I think she means it could go as fast as you hear me speaking," Said the other who was actually Fred anyway.

"The potential does exist and just imagine we could advertise that even a Cleansweep could outpace a Firebolt with one of these babies." We grinned and then began discussing the particulars of the design and were only pried from the discussion by Hermione.

"Luna? We were looking for you."

A wave to the twins and we were back in with most of our current friends excepting Fluer who was already in France. I suppose I was finally getting used to Ron and Ginny because I no longer wanted to watch them slowly die in horrifying ways plus they were related to Fred and George so that gave them points in my book.

"What will you be doing this summer Luna?" Ginny asked.

We smiled, "Visiting Fluer in France since she invited me. Her family has a villa on the beach and it sounds quite lovely. Plus she has a rather gigantic library too."

"Now I'm jealous!" We laughed at Hermione.

"What about you Hermione?"

"My family wants to visit Australia so we'll be there for a week or two. I don't know what makes them so interested in the place." I didn't know that was for sure. There was nothing about Mr. and Mrs. Granger that suggested they belonged in Australia.

Harry spoke up next, "I'll get to stay in the Black Manor at the end of summer. They are doing something to make it better protected and I can invite you all to stay the last week before school if you want."

There was a chorus of agreement at that then the general pleasantness of socializing with people. Well mostly pleasant since there were still moments when I wished I could remove Ron from the gene pool.

Once we were home Luna and I spent a good deal of time working at the Quibbler in the beginning of the summer. We wrote and published articles against the Daily Prophet, but I doubt many people believed them. I can't blame them all that much. We were writing about the return of something horrifying and the Prophet was saying it wasn't true. Pleasing lies were easier than harsh truths, but even so our sales were higher.

We wrote the articles even when we were spending time in France. The Delacour family house was simply gorgeous and the ocean was lovely. Fluer was just as pretty in her swim suit as we imagined and her mother Appolline was rather easy to watch as well. "What are you writing there Luna?"

We smiled at Fluer standing over us as we sat in the beach chair. She was as lovely a sight as one might imagine, but she was just our friend and that was fine. "Just another article for the Quibbler pointing out a number of incidences of muggle baiting that seems to have gone unremarked in other news outlets."

"How do you know about them?" She sat on the sand next to our chair.

"The French Ministry keeps in contact with the British and they were nice enough to send me information on what was happening in Britain. I was surprised, but they said it was something they were doing for the The Paris Magical."

The Paris Magical was the French wizarding equivalent of the Daily Prophet, although I would suggest they might be less biased. Few people in wizarding Britain received the Paris Magical because it was written in French so even though it generally agreed with our reporting in the Quibbler it wasn't much of a boost. Fluer stared for a while; I wonder what she was thinking? "Is this what you will do when you graduate?"

We shrugged rather unsure of our course in life now. "I don't know it is something I enjoy doing and readership has gone up at the Quibbler since I started. Then again I also have a business with Fred and George Weasley in the making. We're designing new magical items for people to buy. Then again, I could consider a career as an Auror. That last is a low priority though because I'm not sure I could really serve under a stupid boss."

We shrugged and added, "I'll be in fifth year next year now that I'm ahead a year so just three more until I'm your age and graduated. Maybe I'll have a better idea by then or maybe I'll do both and more."

She shook her head a bit sadly, "You know I'm taking the summer off, but I do not know what I want to do either. Maybe work somewhere there aren't besotted men. Not many can get past the allure you know?"

We shook our head, "I don't know what to say Fluer. I was in Love with Hermione you know and now we're just friends. I don't even know if there is any other witch in the world like me."

Her hand moves to our face and brushes blonde hair aside then catching a tear. She stands and takes our hand, "Come we will go swim in the ocean. The troubles will be washed away and your article can wait yes?"

"Yes." We played for hours in the surf with Fluer and Ginny chasing about and swimming in the waves. It was almost like a brief moment of pure bliss without any concerns or needs. It was just fun with the elder and younger Delacour daughters and nothing else. We finished up in sandcastle building competition, but Luna and I were disqualified for illegal use of transfiguration.

"I still say we should have won."

Gabrielle shook her head, "No way, you totally transfigured that Dragon and your top three levels."

"No one would have noticed . . ."

There was a snort of laughter, "That dragon of yours was so real he might have slithered off the beach and flew away."

"Hmph that was the point wasn't it?" and we peered at Fluer and Gabrielle attempting to go for angrily, but ending up more with a pout. The two fell into giggles just as we arrived at their house for dinner. I still say we should have won ours was the most realistic even if any muggle would have been scared witless upon seeing it.

After we got changed Dinner was served. That first meal was simply lovely with some of the finest French food I have ever tasted. Fleur's father was speaking, "You still haven't found anything to do Fluer. Why?"

She shrugged, "Everything seems so much less important now. After knowing what Luna has seen how can we all sit and do nothing? It is a British problem they say, but that is such folly. If their Dark Lord wins then he will be a problem for everyone."

He sighs and looks at us, "What about you miss Lovegood. How do you feel about the subject?"

"He has to be stopped. There's no other option, I saw him and there is no doubt in my mind that he is a true monster." What does that say about me? Too much I suppose. He is a monster and we will fight him using every advantage I can. Unlike Dumbledore though we will get directly involved no hiding behind young children.

Dinner ended and we went to the guest room. It could be wondered why I was here in France and not chasing after the sick creature, but the answer was simple. I didn't know where to find him or where to find the other parts of him. Luna and I needed a break too, some time away from the situation.

Another day we went shopping in Magical Paris and Muggle Paris. Fluer kept dragging us into shops and trying to get us into trying on different dresses and pretty robes. We humored her, "This outfit would have any wizard or ahm witch looking at you Luna."

We looked at ourselves in the mirror and Fluer took off our radish earrings, then she held up two silver hoops and gently put them into our ears. We tried to ignore the feelings and Fluer probably didn't even realize what she was doing. "I don't know these earrings aren't my usual and this dress is a bit short at the bottom here plus the top is very low. Won't I be cold?"

"You are and will be gorgeous Luna." She said it like she meant it.

"I can't buy it, but thanks for the time Fluer, now let me just put my other clothes back on." We went into the changing room and since we were in Muggle Paris we put on jeans and a blouse then came back out.

After that there was some more shopping and a visit to a bookstore. That took up the rest of our time as Fluer and I each found books and ended up sitting in comfortable chairs and reading until we had to go back to the Delacour home.

That night Fluer and we spent time studying Chinese under the stars. The book was in Chinese and about astronomy so we worked on translating it and examining the stars above. The astronomy subject in and of itself wasn't difficult, but the translation was. Somewhere in that night we stopped aching as much for Hermione. Oh we would always love her as a friend, but the heart ache diminished.

Luna and I also spent time practicing our fighting techniques with Fluer. The French witch was decent, but not near our level. Even so we thought it might be good for Fluer to learn as well. "You need to dodge more Fluer. The shield charm you have there is barely enough for stunners."

We tossed another stunner at her and she dodged it. She tried to fire one back, but we had moved and she was wrapped in vines. "Oof!"

Down she went and, "You need to see all the spells happening too."

She began disentangling herself. "You had your shield out, dodged, shot a stunner, and transfigured dirt into vines. That was three spells at once Luna I just wasn't expecting it."

We nodded, "I know we have been only using two before, but you need to be prepared for three or even four at once. Some wizards and witches can do that."

She had disentangled herself and moved close to us. "How many other than you?"

"Dumbledore and Voldemort at the least and who knows maybe others can too." She might be right not many other people could cast so many spells at once or silently.

She was very close at that point and we looked at her wondering just what that was when she tackled us and we were pinned on the ground. Her wand pointed at us threateningly. "You never said practice was over Luna."

Her thigh was between our legs and ours between hers. She was very close and so soft her breasts were pressing against our own even as we warmed right where her thigh was pressing. "I didn't, but can you please get up? You're a girl and well it's hard not to notice right now . . ." We blushed.

She rolled off. "Oh right, sorry Luna."

"It's okay, just well I don't want to give myself the wrong idea. We're friends and that's where it stays okay?" Where it needed to stay. Let's not make another mistake like we did with Hermione. We don't want to fall in love with a witch who can't return our affections.

We got up and brushed ourselves off. Fluer did too and said, "How did you know?"

"Part of it was because I kept looking at the other girls in the showers. So, I started showering alone. I knew right then that I was probably different. Well more different than I already was." That's as close to the truth as we want to get here. "What about you? How did you know?"

She shrugged, "Some of the boys are cute when they aren't drooling I guess. I don't know really I am a Quarter Veela and mama says all Veela love men."

"Come on we've been practicing for a while, maybe Appoline has some Beignets?"

She nodded, "Yes her and Gabrielle were supposed to have started the dough earlier. I expect they may be done by now." We were off for the delicious pastries after that.

Not to say that we didn't spend time on this trip trying to discover more about Voldemort. The problem was that nothing in France itself pointed to him. The closest we came was a branch of the Malfoy family in France who apparently never talked to their backward relatives in Britain. I hesitated to tell them just what those same relatives probably thought of them.

Another day was spent with Appoline and the other two girls in her magical kitchen learning the ins and outs of making cookies and pies along with crepes. It was a day filled with batter, flour, and wonderful tasting food. It would have been entirely forgettable until at some point Fluer winced and Appoline cast a quick spell that seemed to relieve Fluer. "What was that spell?"

"It's a charm for cramps; it makes the muscles loosen up." The elder witch said.

"Can you teach it to me?" Yes I know Luna and I don't get bad cramps, but a spell is a spell right? New knowledge is always fascinating. The lesson wasn't all that long and we had it down.

The rest of our stay that week was much the same a dose of slow casual ease and moments of seeing what it was like to be part of a happy loving family. To see how the Delacour family was together was to experience a new and different type of love. I realized then that I had seen the same thing in the Granger household and the Weasley household. It was like friendship except magnified, like what I had been feeling for Hermione and yet not exactly.

There was no codifying it, no understanding it. There were so many forms of it that it could leave you stunned. How could a simple word like "love" have so much meaning and power? I wasn't sure, but I did understood exactly what it was that would make Harry's mother perform a blood ritual that would take her own life just to save her son.

It was humbling and yet at the same time it was lonely. That is because no matter what happened Luna and I would never have the same thing. Sure we might have friends and who knew maybe someday we might find a witch to be with, but I didn't see how we could ever be part of a family. It was that thought in our mind as we were leaving the Delacour house when Fluer said, "Where will you be going now Luna?"

"Albania actually, I wanted to do some research on Voldemort and a lot of what I have leads to the forests there." We were about to continue on our way out.

She took our arm and said, "Wait are you going alone?"

That was the plan it was only a week into summer break and we were out on our own. As long as we sent owl mail and returned for our Vacation with him then Xenophilius wouldn't mind. "I was thinking about it."

"Merde! I will not allow you to go on your own." She looked a bit angry there maybe some flames in her eyes. It must be the Veela heritage.

Still we didn't want to upset her she was, after all, a new friend of ours and I personally found her to be much more pleasing than most. Not too much of course, but she was decent enough. "I really didn't want to drag anyone else with me."

"You will not be dragging as I have already volunteered. Stay here and I will pack then we will go. I suspect you haven't even brought decent rations." She stormed into her house and we waited.

That's how we ended up taking time to visit Albania with Fluer by our side. It was a good thing too because we found a nest of Vampires. "Witch you think to disturb what Voldemort has started. You are wrong and we will destroy you!"

Well at least I knew he'd been here. We began casting on the fly, but the creatures seemed to multiply even as we killed them. Fluer was at our back and we were surrounded, there was only one thing for it. We cast the spell and Fiendfyre blasted out from our wand incinerating the vampires. It was hungry and wanted to feed, but we knew it well. Concentration and willpower made the fire ours. A small voice spoke from behind us, "Luna! What did you do?"

We called the fire back even though it wanted to race out and destroy more. We called it back and looked at the destruction it had wreaked. Nothing was left except a smoldering wreck and even some melted stones, "I was destroying them."

"That is a dark spell though." She looked concerned.

"I don't accept that designation. It is a spell and it is useful. As long as the caster has enough will power and control to keep it tamed there should not be any problem." There was the crux of the issue right there I expect. How many other wizards really had the kind of control and will power that Luna and I together could put in play?

"Well I won't be trying it. I'd rather you didn't either Luna. If it got free and killed you I would lose my friend." She put a hand on our back and rubbed. "I don't have so many that I can afford to lose one you know."

"I'll be fine Fluer. I know my limits." Mostly, except when you fight twenty adult wizards to save a single teenage boy. Well we didn't use the spell then now did we? Maybe it was an oversight or maybe we didn't trust Harry Potter with the information about our ability to cast dark spells?

"If it was anyone else Luna I would be more worried. You are truly something else, like a witch from fairy tales. Maybe one day people will speak about you like we do Merlin or Morgana." She stopped rubbing our back and took our hand. "Come, I do not think we will find anything else about your Voldemort here."

She was right and any other traces of the creature were wiped away. We looked elsewhere though and luck was with us when we found an Albanian wizard who spoke of a spirit that used to haunt the woods. "It was half living, feral even and yet with a deep cunning."

Fluer stood behind us as we spoke her wand pointed at that same forest. "What happened to it?"

"A wizard from Britain came and when he left he said he had destroyed it. We never saw it again so I think he must have done that." The old wizard looked out at the forest where Fluer was staring.

"Did that man come sometime around nineteen ninety one and nineteen ninety two?" We asked him.

He nodded, "Yes that would be right miss. Do you need more for your article?"

"Just one more question. When did you first get an idea that the spirit creature was here?" We pointed towards the woods.

"Sometime in the early nineteen eighties I think. Sorry, but I can't give you an exact date though." He shook his head and rubbed a temple.

We smiled at him nicely, "Thank you sir. I think I have what I need you were a great help."

We ventured into that forest soon after. Fluer spoke up saying, "What are we looking for Luna?"

Good question just what could have sustained the creature here for so long? "I'm not sure, something that could sustain a spirit. We need something that would give it life while it was here and then not be so useful when someone was possessed by that spirit."

"How do you know all this Luna?" Fluer stayed close to us as if trying to keep us safe. It was somewhat funny since in all likelihood Luna and I would be keeping her safe if bad magic went down. Still the gesture was appreciated from our new friend.

"I talked with Harry and I've been in Hogwarts for three years now. Voldemort has been active ever since Quirrell returned in ninety two. His spirit has been looking for this chance for some time now. In fact I'm betting that after Harry defeated Quirrel that snake knew he had to use Harry's blood to remove the protection given by Harry's mother."

Even as we said that I realized that Fluer was the only person we had told any of this. Maybe her distance from Dumbledore helped or maybe something else. Either way it was nice to have another friend and this time we wouldn't be silly enough to fall in love. "You've really studied him Luna, why?"

"I was possessed by his Diary sort of in my first year the sixteen year old version of him at least. Everyone else thought it was evil, but I didn't he was my first friend." Nothing new said here, just a new person.

She looked at us and said, "I didn't have many friends either growing up. Was he really different at sixteen?"

We shrugged, "Somewhat, I think being in my head changed him. He stopped wanting to kill and well he went back into the diary. Everything would have been fine if I hadn't kept trying to write him and talk to my friend."

She put an arm around us as we spoke, "He went a bit crazy because part of him stayed in me and part in the diary because I wrote in it. That's why he released the Basilisk and why he tried to take Harry Potter's body. But, in the end when Harry was there stunned at his feet he couldn't do it."

She stared at us looking in our eyes, "Harry woke up and he taunted him into stabbing the diary. That was the end of it, but since then I've learned more about him and about Voldemort. I think the sixteen year old he was would have hated what he became. He would have wanted me to stop him."

She rubbed our back, "You believe that don't you Luna?"

"With all my heart Fleur and with all of my soul that's why I'm out here doing this. That's part of why I learned so much about him. I'm going to stop him." We walked into the forest now more determined than before.

"Why pick me to come with you?" Good question, the answer was easy though.

"You're the most skilled and powerful of all my friends. Also, you're the one who picked me remember. I was planning on going alone." We smirked at her there since she had in fact picked us and decided to interject herself not the other way around.

"Yes well I couldn't have the Tri-Wizard champion dead from Vampires could I? The brightest Arithmancer going out on her own, it was a crime. Maybe not as bad a crime as the things you intended to bring as rations though!" She gave a dig at our side.

"Yeah well I didn't exactly want to ask for your mother's fine cuisine to go. Not that I'm not glad you did though. It is soo much better." We smiled just thinking about the ready meals we had from Appoline Delacour.

"You are no fun to tease about English cuisine being horrible." We laughed at that.

That was when we found it. What we had stumbled into was an area of the forest that was simply black sand with a bright sky above. In the center of the circle I saw the rune pattern we moved carefully towards it. "There are runes written on granite that peeks out of the ground. Hold your position I'm going to check it out."

"Yes." She stayed and kept an eye out as we walked into the circle. Maybe this ground had once been regular dirt, but it was now dry gritty sand changed by the energy of the runes. We examined them close and saw that there were the remains of blood spilled over them. As for the actual ritual it was a simple exchange murder of one sentient creature for life to a spirit.

"He killed people here, murdered them one after the next each month." We knelt down on the ground taking in the enormity of what had been done month after month from the nineteen eighties right up until the nineteen nineties. More than one hundred and twenty people died so he could stay as some spirit fragment.

Fleur levitated an item at the edge of the clearing. "This looks like it was a hand held mirror."

We moved to her and looked at it. It was indeed an old sort of mirror and inside was communication runes a bit similar to those used in Floo creation. "Maybe it's a communication mirror?"

Fluer nodded, "Hmm you might be right. It has similar runes to a Floo connection except it also has an Arithmantic numerical assignment. Maybe that's how they connect two mirrors one to the other?"

"Maybe so, let me take a few pictures and then I think we're done here." I took magical pictures of the center runes and the mirror, and then we were on our way. One portkey later and we were at the Delacour house. We took a long shower and slept in the guest bed.

That night we had a dream. I was walking down a street and I find a door with some wards on it, but they are easy wards. These are simple for someone with my skill and power. I pull them apart and walk into the house. An old witch looks up with surprise and I stun her. I move close and pull out my dagger with slow precision I carve out the word MUDBLOOD into her chest. She is dead by the time I reach her navel and finish the 'D'. Rich red blood covers my hands and I laugh.

I scream and Luna is with me. We trip out of the bed wrestling the covers and fall to the floor. We get free and there is blood all over us. We are covered with it, every part of us is red with the ichor and we run to the shower. We rip our clothes off and soap ourselves down slowly the blood washes off of us, but not from our hands.

There is a knock at the door, "Luna! Are you okay Luna?"

"Fine, I'm okay." Merlin why won't the blood wash off our hands? It's not going away why?

We scrub and scrub our hands, but it won't go away. We're sobbing now under the shower. "Luna, it's been half an hour we are worried. I'm coming in unless you say no."

What can we say? It's too hard to even talk and the blood won't wash away. The door opens and Fluer comes into the room. She walks to us and turns the shower off; gently she puts a towel on our back and says, "Luna are you okay?"

"My hands, look at the blood . . ." We show her our bloody hands and she takes them in her own.

She holds them gently and says, "They are not bleeding, just a bit red from scrubbing so hard. See? Look I swear."

She shows them to us and slowly we realize she's right. There is no blood on them there was never any blood on us at all. It was all a reaction to the dream . . . we look at her as she says, "What happened Luna?"

There is a connection a horrible connection between me and him. Of course how could it be otherwise we are part and parcel of the same soul? Can we even say that to Fluer? What can we say now as she uses a drying charm wraps us in a fluffy robe and holds us? "It was him, I saw through Voldemort's eyes. I saw what he was doing every moment of it."

"How? How can that be Luna?" She is confused.

"The diary it's part and parcel of the same thing. I had a piece of him in me and I am still connected to him. Please don't tell anyone." How many things can I say that are true and yet aren't quite fully true before I get to the real truth? I don't know, but I'm not ready to tell it to her quite yet.

"Stay, stay just one more night." No, that's a bad idea especially now when we are this vulnerable. We don't want to open our heart and get burned again.

We shake our head, "Thanks Fluer, but I'll be all right. Just need some more occlumency and I'll be fine."

"You are the bravest, strongest, strangest and most stubborn witch I have ever known."

"Thanks" We stood up and headed to the guest room. There we put on our clothes.

Fleur stood outside all the while requesting that we stay while we declined. We exited the room and said, "How about a compromise. We'll stay the rest of the day and then go this evening? We can do what you like in between."

What Fluer liked ended up being the beach again. This time it was just the two of us body surfing and running about. Then talking about our lives and what had been in our past. Then as the sun set over the ocean we said goodbye.

It was a bit sad to leave Fluer, but we had to go back to Britain and it was probably best to go now before we became infatuated. We would keep in touch and we certainly wouldn't forget our parting hug and a kiss on both cheeks. That was pretty useful for casting our Patronus too bad we ended up with a rabbit.

Better than a snake I suppose, although a mongoose would have been pretty awesome on that score. Still, rabbit is what we had to work with and so, the next Dementor we saw would get a rabbit to the face. This is where I suggest mongoose or even starving half crazed weasel might be a more powerful image. Really Luna a Rabbit, what are we on some silly television cartoon in Japan? Don't blame me on that one Hermione watched it and we'd seen an episode or so when we were visiting her last year.

Despite my displeasure with our rabbit we continued to get it with our Patronus spell and I just decided to name him Murder Bunny 2000. That way if anyone ever saw him we could say, "Oh that was just Murder Bunny 2000" Let's see them laugh when he comes back with a Dementor finger in his cute fluffy mouth.

The first thing Luna and I did after our Patronus work was some research on the mirror we had found in Albania. We couldn't find out if Quirrell had gotten it or had been given it by someone though. So we left that bit vague and wrote up an article on the spirit that we thought was Voldemort and just where he had been since Harry Potter had defeated him.

Summer break was, in its own way, more boring that the school year. Especially when we were home alone and let's be honest it was very frustrating to know Voldemort was out there on the loose, but to be unable to find him and confront him. Well maybe find him and shoot a killing curse in the back, we don't need to be fair here do we?

That was the other problem in that any confrontation we might have would include his goons. Some of the same people I had been recruiting at sixteen, plus others. The list of names wasn't all that hard to figure out, everyone who had claimed to be under the Imperious curse and who was also pure blood and wealthy was basically guaranteed to be a Deatheater. Of course we couldn't just look each of them up and kill them now could we?

No, seriously that's actually a bad idea. That way leads directly to Azkaban and a Dementor's kiss. I might be intelligent, but not enough to go on a murder spree of all the wealthiest witches and wizards in Britain. Not to mention all of their wards and such. Best leave plans that foolish to my crazy self of the past.

We missed out on a visit to the Grangers since they were in Australia, but as discussed on the train from Hogwarts we were invited to the Black manor. Harry was living there for a short time this summer instead of at his Aunt and Uncle's house and Hermione was visiting as well. I had the distinct impression that Harry didn't like the Aunt and Uncle all that much and Hermione mentioned that they were horrid to Harry.

We actually took time out to ask Harry about them. After Harry explained or more appropriately after he hemmed and hawed about them and acted rather cagey when even attempting to say even one kind thing about his circumstances we said the first thing on our mind, "Do they hit you Harry?"

He shook his head, "Oh no, well my cousin did until last year when I saved him from a Dementor. They even gave me my own room and not just the cupboard . . ."

He stopped himself there. "You had to stay in a cupboard?"

"It, I mean they aren't well evil like Voldemort you know. They just don't like wizards and all." He had a hard time getting that out.

They hate wizards and kept him in a cupboard. Did I hear the screams of "Freak!" coming back to me from the Orphanage? Oh yes I did, I remembered them all too well until I had silenced them with my power. I had them cowed after that and I hated them all so very much. Right this moment I hated Harry's Aunt and Uncle just the same. Apparently even friendship can make someone willing to sacrifice themselves on other's behalf. We clenched our fists tight and all we could say to Harry was, "Oh . . ."

Luna didn't quite agree with me on the idea of killing his relatives right there. In fact she reminded me about the many muggles we'd seen out in London and Paris who weren't just like those relatives. She reminded me that Draco Malfoy and Voldemort were just as bad in the other direction. In the meantime Harry and we sat in silence. Finally he stood up and said, "I should go now."

We looked at him and said, "Harry if you ever need to talk about it with anyone I'm here. I know you might not believe me, but I understand and won't tell anyone."

He smiled and said, "Thanks Luna!"

Then he was gone and we doubted he ever would talk to us about it, but we understood that as well. The only thing we didn't understand was why he didn't hate muggles the same way I had/did. Be honest with yourself Thom it's hard to let go of that hate. You want to hate them, but you can't hate them all. Maybe just some of them?

A number of adults were about the manor and involved in hushed conversations. I quite expect that they were discussing what they were going to do about Voldemort, but those of us under seventeen were not admitted.

Hermione and I shared a room with Ginny and it was mostly enjoyable even if Ginny did tend to go on about Harry and Quidditch. Hermione and I could discuss school work and the nature of magic. It was very nice except that I had trouble sleeping. One night we sent a letter to Fluer.

August 14, 1995 

Dear Fluer,

Summer is almost over now and I'll be starting a new year. I doubt it will be as bad as last year, but then again can it really be any worse? What could possibly be worse than having to save my friend from a madman in a graveyard?

I've been mostly writing articles for The Quibbler, but I have also had some progress in the business Fred and George are planning with us. We have a name now the Lovegood Weasley Wizarding Gizmos. Not exactly the best name I guess, but I entirely forbid any mention of Wheezes so that was our compromise.

Currently I'm staying in the Black Manor in a room with Hermione and Ginny together. Harry and Ron are also here and so are a number of other adults. There have been a few whispers about The Order of the Phoenix. That was a vigilante group under Dumbledore that originally fought against Voldemort. No one is actually saying anything to me though.

I've been having some trouble sleeping though. In some ways it's probably because I'm not entirely over Hermione. How do you really just get over that sort of thing anyway? It's not like she's gone from my life. She's always there and now she's just across the room sleeping in the other bed. A few steps away and yet a thousand miles apart? I so very much miss the calm and pleasant vacation I had in France.

Your friend,

Luna

We finished our letter and sent it along via owl. Soon after that we found ourselves being carried by Fred and George Weasley outside. I decided not to use any spells on them since they seemed terribly excited and Luna pointed out that we were now technically their friend and business partner so they probably weren't planning on something horrible. Luna was right of course they had finished a sample of my broomstick rocket pack and wanted to show it to me. "Right show her the problem George."

Fred nodded and held out a broom with our rocket pack on it. "Okay so I'm going to hit the engine start now."

He hit the button and the broom rocketed into the air there was a sudden explosion of sound and the broom fell apart in splinters. The engine kept going though up and up until we couldn't see it anymore. One of the boys hit a button on a control pad and a small puff of smoke appeared way up high in the sky. "First one did the same thing and kept going, who knows where it is now."

I looked at George, who had spoken, and said, "Well without any atmosphere to apparate into the engine it will run out of fuel at some point. However an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless an outside force acts on it, so it is likely on its way out of the solar system."

"Crikey! Good thing we installed a remote detonator on this one. You see the problem though?" I think they said that at the same time since we heard it in stereo.

"Yes, the broom is shattering when it hits the sound barrier. I suppose we'll have to design some sort of throttle device for the jet pack." We thought about that for a short period even as we spoke our thoughts aloud, "I seem to have entirely forgotten that the broom's braking magic would not be nearly enough to stop the power of the jet pack. We'll need to add some sort of throttle control and did you actually make a remote control broom to test my jet pack?"

The twins nodded and we chuckled, "I guess that can be another product we sell yes?"

The three of us spent a good deal of time after that working on the rocket pack design out in the yard. Luckily I had the original specs for the jet engine on hand and we went through those as well figuring out what each part did and then figuring out how to make a throttle control that would be easy for a flyer on the broom to use. Hermione came out with some sandwiches and corn juice she looked on for a while and then said, "Where did you get the time to study jet engines?"

The boys pointed at me, "When she sent us the design for the jet pack."

"Last year in school around everything else, but mostly I just purchased a book with the design and modified it for my jet packs. I gave that to Fred and George here and they made one. We're working on actually understanding the design of the jet engine right now though. It may take some time before we figure out how to make a throttle though." Hermione looked at us and shook her head.

"Well remember that you're wandering dangerously into misuse of muggle artifacts will you?" She was right and apparently not interested in getting in trouble for breaking that rule since she left soon after. On the other hand I don't think she told anyone, so that was nice.

Dinner time came around and the three of us made a few finishing touches on the design and Fred and George promised that they would work on a new prototype when they got home.

After dinner we received a letter from Fluer:

August 15, 1995

Dear Luna,

I have heard of The Order you speak about and have started helping them out here in France. I've also found a part time job, but I can't say too much about that yet. 

I am happy to hear that your business venture has a name now although LWWG may not be the best acronym in the world. Maybe no one will use it?

I feel bad that you are having such troubles with your sleep. I hope you have been continuing your Occulemency to keep bad dreams away. I'm sure you have been, but I worry about you because you are my friend. We are allowed to worry like that you know.

I miss you as well. It was nice having someone stay here. Gabrielle also says that I must tell you to come back soon and play with her more. I have told her that I will invite you over for the Yule holiday. Will you come?

Your friend,

Fluer

We weren't quite sure what to write at the time and the adults were talking with each other. The Order of the Phoenix meeting was in session I supposed. Why the actual government and auror force couldn't get off their arse and do the job was easy enough to explain. Minister Fudge wasn't going to do anything at all. There was yet another person who could do with a killing curse to the back in a dark alley. I wondered if I should start making a list, but decided that having the list would make it much too tempting to start crossing names off of it. So, I reminded myself, yet again, that Azkaban has horrible room service.

In any case we weren't terribly interested in what the adults were doing unlike the other young people in the room with us who were trying to listen to the floor. I think we weren't as interested because we didn't want to be tempted into giving the adults information. Especially since that information would incriminate us. I was enjoying this second chance at life and neither I, nor Luna wished it to end. So, instead of trying to eavesdrop and not quite ready to write our letter we wandered around the house and there it was.

The sick twisting disgust in the pit of our stomach and we've vomited again. Clean up the mess and head towards the feeling, there it is in this wall. An elf is attacking us now and ow! He bites. Stunning spell and a miss, another bite on our shin and we're thrown across a hall. Stunning spell and a hit! Body bind and another stunner just for good measure then we head back to the location.

We find a nest full of junk most likely bits and pieces of things that the elf wanted to keep, but inside the nest and along with the junk is a Locket! What do you know R.A.B was related to Sirius Black? If I had been sure of that before I would certainly have searched this house sooner.

In any case now is the time for the killing curse, no wait. Too many people about, damn oh well we'll just bring it home with us tomorrow and do the job there. For a moment we are briefly tempted to bring it to the older wizards, but seriously everyone knows adults are useless. Oh wait we have a tied up elf here. Big sigh and wouldn't any wizard or witch who was interested love to see that sigh? I bet they would have.

We knock on the door where the adults are discussing things. There is a sudden hush of voices, then the movement of chairs, and finally Professor McGonagall answers the knock by opening the door. She looks at us before her and speaks, "Oh Luna, this really isn't a discussion for you dear."

We nod, "I know ma'am, but the elf here attacked me. I was cleaning up in one of the rooms because I couldn't sleep and he attacked me."

"What on earth for?" She seems rather surprised.

We shrugged, "I really couldn't say. I stunned him and left him in a body bind. Sorry Mister Black!"

Said man sees us peering in at him and replies back, "Kreacher, no harm done Luna. He's something of a wild sort. Go ahead and bind him up if you need to."

McGonagall takes our hand, "I'll just get her back to bed. I think it may be not the best thing to be wandering about in this old house alone Luna dear."

Hermione and Ginny are in their beds pretending to sleep when I get up there. The professor closes the door behind us. So we've successfully found another Horcrux and are even now holing it on our person. We put it in a bag, then another bag, then our trunk. Even as we're doing that we know we'll end up having to explain ourselves to Hermione and Ginny.

I still feel nauseous even with three layers of distance between it and us. Hermione comes over and says, "What's going on Luna? Did you put something in your trunk?"

Stupid elf, why did it have to be here and why did I feel the dammed need to let the adults know about me binding it up? Why, because they would have found him in the morning and asked questions that's why. Right and we couldn't have used the floo and gone home with the item then destroy it and after that come back? Oh you stupid IDIOT!

Well it's too late now, "I'm feeling nauseous I was just," think quick and "putting away my hygiene products."

Ginny looks and says, "Oh I guess your cramps make you nauseous sometimes too."

We nod, "I just need to take a potion for them and it will be all right." This is not the time to mention Appoline's cramp relieving charm of that I am entirely sure.

I feel wretched for lying to Hermione like this, but it had to be done. The last thing I want is for her to get involved with Voldemort. Well second to last maybe, since the very last thing I want her to ever know is that I'm here in Luna's head. In any case is she were to get too involved with Voldemort he would just kill her or send goons to kill her in moments unlike Dumbledore who crafts complex plots that just happen to include her death.

Were we any different there? We were perfectly fine with putting Fluer in danger is it because she's older than Hermione? Yes I think so and more powerful as well if not quite as brilliant. Besides, Fluer was only our friend and Hermione well there was still that small ache. Unfair to her I suppose, but that's just the way it was. Neither Luna, nor I were willing to directly put Hermione in danger while we were okay with putting Fluer in danger. Maybe we should tell her to stop in our next letter? That's a good plan.

Just as soon as we stop feeling the need to dry heave we'll get right to it. We take our anti-nausea potion and lay down on the bed. That's zero help though and oh hell it feels so horrible there's no way sleep is going to come though because that vile thing just radiates its oozing sickness all over. How can they not feel it? It is like some horrible cancer, it pulses with malignancy, waiting to eat my very flesh. The night is slow and it hurts so much. It's beyond horrible and yet it is a part of me oh Merlin! It's some part of me and I swear I can feel it trying to rejoin me. I feel its fangs digging into my very skull.

Somehow our eyes close and then we are somewhere else. I am walking into a small muggle house it is late night and no one is awake. I creep into each room and stun the occupants then bring them into their living room. There is a middle aged man with greying hair and the barest hint of bristles on his cheeks. With him is a middle aged woman with wide hips and a slightly sagging belly. The two are placed so that they are seated on the couch and two young children are placed on the floor. The boy is perhaps eight and the girl is eleven.

What happens next is horrifying. I wake them all then kill the children one at a time. The girl I literally rip apart with magic tearing her arms, legs, and head off then rip the rest of her to bloody bits of flesh. All the while the family is screaming at me. They beg me to stop even as I transfigure a pebble into a giant boulder and slowly roll it over the boy. There is a horrible squishing sound and the middle aged woman faints.

I wake her up and slowly break each bone in the woman's body she screams with each break and I have to wake her from unconsciousness a few times, but she lives through the process. The pain must be agonizing for her, but I'm not done yet. I use my magic and flay her alive.

When the woman is finally dead the man begs and pleads for me to kill him and I slowly dig my hand into his chest and pull out his beating heart, but he's still alive. I leave him that way alive and staring at his heart beating outside his chest. Alive to stare at the horrible wreckage I have made of him and his family.

I walk out of the house blood all over me and I cast a spell. Above the house appears a giant skull with a snake in it. I smile at it and giggle a bit because the wizards who clean the scene up will have to kill the muggle man themselves. I wonder how much it will horrify them and I laugh with delight.

We wake with the blood still dripping down our hands. Somehow we cast a silent silencing spell before we scream. Think carefully now there's no blood it was the dream and it was him. Not me not really me, I wouldn't ever certainly not and enjoy it . . . no . . . no . . .

The sick twisted thing in my bags whispers softly that I would enjoy it. That if I just let it in I could feel how much fun it will be and I am done with this thing now. We get up and grab our bag no one is even awake yet because it is barely four in the morning.

With the thing in our hands its whispers continue to torment me. But, I refuse to heed them; refuse to listen to the sweet siren's song of blood and death that it promises. I refuse damn it! Into the nearest floo and out at my house. My father, I mean Xenophilius, is certainly asleep and his room is far away from mine. Into my room where there are wards we head.

There we take out the locket and feel it trying to get in, we are covered with the blood of innocents and doesn't it feel good? Fr a moment we feel the blood streaming over our body and I almost want to smile at the feeling. We rip our clothes off and scream silently no more. No more from this dammned sick thing.

We use the killing curse on the locket and a voice says, "See you enjoy killing. You're me and you know it. You enjoyed ki. . ." The voice fades away and blissful relief floods through us. We collapse into our own bed tired and yet victorious.

"Luna! Luna! Are you here? Your Floo connection was wide open from the Black Manor. Sirius said it had been opened at like four this morning. Oh where could she be?" That sounded like Hermione.

"Well she's not in here; I've never seen so many empty firewhisky bottles in one room before." There was Ginny's voice.

Probably Xenophilius' room "Young ladies we do not just wander through people's rooms. We should be polite and knock first besides; this seems to be her father's suite." That was Professor McGonagall apparently reminding the ladies how to properly search a house.

We hear feet walking about and slowly begin to move. The Professor's voice sounds again, "You mentioned that she was having feminine issues last evening?"

What a proper English lady she was. I walked out of my room forgetting what my state of dress might be and spoke, "I'm here and I'm okay. Just couldn't sleep well last night. I felt so ill, so I . . ."

"Young Lady there are young gentlemen present!" Were there? Oh yes apparently Harry and Ron were here too and they were staring at us even as she spoke. They were staring at us because we were entirely naked.

Oh yes we had ripped our clothes off hadn't we? Both of us had apparently forgotten that and thus we turned and hurried back to our room, "Sorry! I'll just get dressed!"

A few minutes later we came out in jeans and a blouse. Harry and Ron were staring at the floor and Professor McGonagall was saying, "Much better Miss Lovegood. The others here were concerned so I brought the over using the floo connection you irresponsibly left open."

There was scolding and concern in the same sentence that took an interesting talent. Was it any wonder Dumbledore chose someone like her for his second at the school? Not to me she was the perfect 'yes' woman and an excellent example of a stuffy English woman, even if she was actually Scottish. "Well I'm feeling much better now, sorry to have worried everyone."

"It's all right Luna did you want to come back with us for the day?" I looked at Ginny and shrugged. It wasn't a horrible idea and they clearly wanted to spend time with us.

We went back to the Black Manor with the group and ended up playing some games. Hermione had brought Monopoly and it was rather funny to see Ron and Ginny trying to play. Everything seemed to be fine until Dumbledore came in and said, "I was wondering if I could speak with Miss Lovegood in private."

The others smiled and probably didn't think anything of it. Me, on the other hand, I know he suspects something. We go through the floo to his office in Hogwarts because "He forgot to get something"

It is more like he wanted to intimidate us and didn't want to question us in neutral territory. Here is his power base and here is where naughty students get read the riot act. He has us sit while he pretends to look for his forgotten item and then he takes a seat at his desk.

His mind probe hits us and I swat it away. "You know Luna I've been very concerned about you since the diary incident. Last year you performed at a level beyond that of any witch your age has ever performed you know that yes?"

Rhetorical question he's searching. We sit quietly and let him continue, "Last evening Kreacher attacked you and you stunned and bound him. This morning when we freed him he was talking about how he had failed to hold on to something. I had to stun him then feed him a calming potion."

We waited for his reveal not showing anything on our face. "He said he had a locket given to him by Rubeus Black. That is Sirius' brother who died in the service to the dark lord. Kreacher said you found the locket."

We sighed and pulled the now destroyed item from a pocket. "Here you are sir."

He stared at it, "Destroyed, but how?"

"Just how I found it sir maybe Rubeus Black did it?" That was a straight up lie. "Same as the Diary isn't it sir? The one that took me over and had Voldemort in it. Harry killed it with a Basilisk fang. I just knew from seeing this that it was the same."

He frowns, what don't we look trustworthy? We're just a sweet innocent almost fifteen year old girl with a vague smile and innocent blue eyes. "You didn't bring it to us last night though."

"No sir, I felt ill from remembering all about the diary. Plus I had some feminine issued and it was a rather rotten night. I suppose it all passed my mind." He clearly isn't buying it entirely and here he comes to try peeking in our mind. A stronger probe this time and I let him see me holding the destroyed locket.

"Next time I hope you'll bring it to someone in authority?" Meaning him I suppose.

"Oh well I suppose so sir. I had intended to do that and then there were the muzzy miffles about and they helped it to just slip my mind." Vague smile and show him that I really might believe such creatures are about.

"Well I don't want to keep you from your friends or your summer fun." He stood and we went back to the Black Manor. I was very sure right then that we were now playing a very dangerous game, but we always had been and, as I mentioned, Dumbledore wouldn't just kill us outright. No he'd make a plan that would somehow end up putting us in a position where we could easily die.

I planned to disappoint him if that happened again. Luna assuredly agrees with that.

August 21, 1995

Dear Fluer,

Terribly sorry for the delay, I have been working with Fred and George on our rocket pack for brooms and on some other fascinating ideas. I was thinking about that mirror we saw and how it could be more than just a two way communication device. We could enchant them in a way that would allow people to call whomever they liked, something a bit like a telephone or portable floo. I'm including a possible design on that since you saw the mirror too. 

I will admit that we avoided getting Hermione involved in the process. I think it's just better that way working too closely with her and sleeping in the same room would have just made things even worse. Someday I hope the pain will just go away.

I'm glad to hear you have a part time job now. I also hope no one decides to use the acronym you just created. Although it is probably better than SPEW, which is Hermione's society for protecting elves, wouldn't you say?

It is perfectly okay that you worry. I know that's what friends do, but I have been thinking. It is unfair of me to include you in what I am doing to combat the Dark Lord. I won't ask you to stop helping the Order of the Phoenix, but it is wrong for me to get you involved with what I am doing.

Also, I will be happy to join your family for the Yule holiday as long as my father is also invited?

Your friend,

Luna

We received Fluer's response a few days later:

August 17, 1995

Dear Luna,

Sadly this will be my last letter for a while since I am starting my new job tomorrow.

I've included some suggestions for your mirror idea.

As for your suggestion that I cease helping you, well I refuse. I will try to help you no matter what you may request because you are my friend.

Your friend,

Fluer

That was the last letter we received from Fluer that summer. It was also the last letter we sent. We desperately hoped that despite what the French witch said we could keep her away from danger. It wasn't fair of us to include her we realized that now.

The rest of the week before school started was nice, but perhaps not as full of fun as the trip to France had been. I guess that was because even as the new school year loomed before us there was an even bigger threat on the horizon. One that Luna and I now planned to face alone.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: Minor apologies for my atrocious grammar. The comma and I are ruthless enemies . . .


	8. Chapter 7

The train ride to school found Ron and Hermione as prefects. That meant they had to keep order on the train so Harry and I were seated together along with Ginny. "I really enjoy your articles Luna."

"Oh thank you Harry. I work hard to ensure they are true." He's smiling at me with those weird green eyes of his. Meanwhile Ginny is staring at us as if she wants to gouge our eyes out.

"The Yule ball was really nice wasn't it?" I looked at him wondering where his normal conversation skills had gone off to.

"It was quite nice Harry. Did you want to discuss something specific about it? The dancing the meal, Ron's horrible manners?"

He blushed and looked away. Maybe my accidental flashing of him was still affecting him. Ginny stood up suddenly and said, "Luna! How could you! Ugh!"

She snorted and stormed out of the cabin. What was that all about anyway? How could I what? I looked at the door and said, "Do you have any idea what that was about?"

Harry blushed again and mumbled something entirely unintelligible. "I don't think I understood that Harry. Can you please speak up; there may be a Huffenefell in here preventing good hearing."

He laughed at that and said, "You don't really think they exist do you?"

"Generally not, I do like to hold out hope that they might. So many things we don't know there's always a possibility that it could exist somewhere. Just no evidence." We smile at him and he blushes again.

I'm wondering just how much our exposed body might have affected him when he speaks again. "It's just I well I think I might fancy you."

For a few moments I let Luna look at him. He's taller now and broader in the shoulders the green eyes are still weird, and the brown hair is a bit of a mop. All in all though he's almost pretty or ahh handsome. It's just that neither of us even begins to feel anything more towards him other than friendship. Wow is this how Hermione felt? "Oh Harry, you're my friend, but well I guess I can share a secret with you. I like girls Harry, that's why I was so annoyed with Victor last year. I was in love with Hermione."

Oh I've never seen someone fall out of a train seat before. He looks okay though. He gets up and stares at us a few moments, "Really?"

His eyes show a vast confusion. "Yes really."

"Have you ever you know snogged ahh I mean . . ." he blushes really bright red now. Possibly he is embarrassed about asking.

"No I haven't ever even kissed another girl so I don't know how it will work except from books. I probably shouldn't describe that now though should I?" We tilted our head curiously.

If Harry got any redder he would be darker that a tomato. "No ahhm no . . . maybe I should find where Ginny went?"

He skittered out the door even as we said, "Ask her to come see me would you?" He nodded and escaped the cabin. I hope we didn't make him cry that would have been a shame. He was certainly, at least third, in our rankings of friends and we'd feel bad about making him cry.

Ginny found her way back and said in an annoyed tone, "Harry says you wanted to talk. So talk already."

Well at least we knew exactly what had upset her. She was clearly interested in Harry and he was not interested in her. Still we could solve her annoyance with us simply enough. "I like girls Ginny and I have no interest at all in boys. I'm certainly not interested in Harry." Short and quick and is there something wrong with this train car that people keep falling down?

Ginny is kneeling back up from her tumble as she stammers, "You don't ahh. . . don't ahm fancy me do you?"

I laugh now that is funny. "No Ginny just Hermione and she didn't feel the same. I'm sure I'll find someone someday."

She sits and stares at us, "Merlin! What's it like I mean I think about Harry and his strong arms just picking me up and snogging me senseless. I just imagine him taking me somewhere and laying me down."

We stop her before she becomes more graphic in her descriptions of what she's imagining. "Yes I get the picture and have the same dreams just with girls in the place of Harry." She stared some more and then we began talking like we normally do. Less about Quidditch and more about Harry though. I suppose I didn't mind so much this time.

I minded even less when Fred and George came bustling in to the cabin. "There she is hiding from us again brother of mine."

"What? No Fred I wasn't . . ." We were cut off when we were handed a pair of Omnioculars.

"Just watch this!" The two of them exclaimed with glee.

Taking the omnioculars in hand we put them to our eyes. Then we watched as Fred or Maybe George got onto a broom. It was harder to tell them apart without their magical cores showing that was for sure.

In any case the boy, who was one of the twins, strapped on a rocket pack and took off into the air. He went for a bit without it and then a voce holding the Omnioculars said, "Ready! Go!"

The boy on the broom pushed a throttle at the front of the broom and the jet pack lit up. A contrail of white appeared behind him and his voice dopplered away, "WOOOHooooo!"

The Omnioculars changed focus and we watched as the boy on the broom wrestled it into a turn and came back around. His hand steady on the throttle and we could see a little red mark just below where he had the throttle with the word "DANGER" prominent on it. He pulled the throttle back and came in for a landing.

He smiled widely and said, "That brother of mine is now the fastest broom in the world!"

The image ended and we handed the Omnioculars back to the Weasley twins with a huge smile. "Brilliant!"

They nodded back and said, "Oh yes veritably. We also have a portable swamp, a wildfire whiz bang, extendable ears, a skiving snack box, and more. The owl orders have been mounting already and just think how well we'll do this year. Every member of all the Quidditch teams will want one of our Broom Speed Booster packs."

"Well it will certainly make the game more interesting. Please do remind them not to throttle past your danger mark I expect that is the speed point for a sonic boom yes?" It was probably wrong of us to imagine each Quidditch player exploding in a brilliant fireball. Wrong, but funny.

"Yes and we were thinking that if we made our own brooms we could enchant them to be indestructible." They grinned at us.

"Right we could! Of course, the person on the broom might not be, we'll have to add extra safety charms beyond what normal brooms have on them."

The discussion went on about exactly how we might go about building our own brooms with the appropriate charms and ways to ensure that our rocket packs didn't actually kill anyone. After that we went on to discussing the communication mirrors and Luna and I agreed to have some working prototypes by the next Hogsmeade weekend.

The twins in turn promised to have record profits to show us by that time. If they were correct in their calculations we'd be not even halfway through the school year when we could purchase a store front.

At some point Ginny left the car and went elsewhere. We didn't actually notice she was gone until we were heading off the train talking to Fred and George. In fact we actually walked to the Gryffindor table before we realized we needed to be with the Ravenclaws.

September 6, 1995

Dear Fluer,

I am officially fifteen now as of yesterday and we had the welcoming feast yet again, it wasn't quite the same without Durmstrang and Beauxbatons coming in. I hope you don't mind if I say you were one of the loveliest sights of that evening. Ravenclaw has new students, but I didn't catch their names. Really I didn't catch most of the names of the new students as I had one of my new Chinese translation books out and was doing that instead. Plus I was sitting with the Ravenclaws instead of with Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny. It's hard when your friends are in other houses.

We have a new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher again this year. That's one new one for every year I've been here. Her name is Dolores Umbridge and she's a special appointee from the Ministry of Magic. This means she's probably going to be the least qualified teacher we've ever had and that includes the man who tried to kill me last year.

I hope you are doing well and I miss talking with you.

Your friend,

Luna Lovegood

September 8, 1995

Dear Fleur,

I was entirely right about the uselessness of Umbridge. She's teaching from an older book and won't even let us practice spells. In addition she's determined to drone on about how Voldemort is not coming back and how I and Harry Potter are liars. I almost let her get to me, but decided that silence would tick her off more and I think she wanted me to get a detention.

Your friend,

Luna Lovegood

Fluer wasn't responding to our letters and I suppose I shouldn't blame her. Luna and I had basically told her to stay away. Somehow as we were thinking about that we found ourselves alone with Ron. The least favorite of all my current friends and we were in a small classroom together. How did that happen? He's speaking as if we've been conversing for some short amount of time now, "She's just so unreasonable. Patrol the halls and do our duty and no slacking off. I can't stand it and schoolwork."

Okay he's probably talking about Hermione. I'm not feeling inclined to take his side, "Seems like she has the right idea."

"Oh no! Not you too Luna. I just need to do things my own way you know. Be my own person and do things my own way." He's looking at us now. We're having a hard time deciding not to throttle him so we remain quiet.

He continues on, "She was with Michael Corner you know, said she was helping him study. Can you believe that?" I look at him.

We say with a direct voice, "Yes, Hermione is not known to lie. What do you really want Ron?"

He looks at us again as if he's seeing us for the first time. Is it sad to think he's actually more intelligent than many of my followers were? It really just says something for the downfall of humanity. "Oh yeah, right. Well see Harry was saying you didn't fancy him see and he says you're different from most girls. I was figuring that means you fancy me since most fancy him right?"

We laugh loud and long. Now that right there is funny. Ginny had more of a chance than he ever would. What a riot. He's turning an angry red now. "Oh ah sorry Ron, but no I don't."

We chuckle a bit more there and he says, "Well it ain't funny getting a guy's hopes up and you even showed us your you knows back at your house. I figured that meant you fancied either me or Harry. I even told him so."

"Breasts Ron they are breasts or even mammary glands. It was an accident I swear not an intentional plot to make you embarrass yourself." I didn't need a plot for that he could do it fine all on his own.

"Oh well I guess I'll just be off then." He stood and stomped off and we couldn't help and laugh. Well at least all of our friends knew or well most of them. We'd entirely forgotten to tell Ron we were interested in girls. Oh well maybe one of the others would explain it better to him next time.

We continued working on the mirrors as we had discussed with Fred and George on the train. Hopefully we'd figure out some way of making it work magically. I sighed and wished we could just take this idea from the muggles, but the best they could do seemed to be some gigantic brick of a phone in a car. Plus they couldn't even make it so you would see the person talking.

Soon after that was when we took time on our first Hogsmeade weekend and we ended up meeting with the twins. We put four mirrors on the table. "I've made it so each of these can contact the other in its pair, but I can't seem to get them to recognize any of the others. I'm thinking if we could make a sort of central point then it could be the match for every other mirror. Then all we would need to do is have some sort of routing inside that would connect the two mirrors we want?"

The twins looked as we drew a sort of ward stone with some runes on it. "Be even easier if each mirror was tuned to the user by a pin prick though. The arithmancy here would get horribly jumbled for a hundred or more, but not with a little blood."

"No best not go that way Luna. Too many people think blood magic is dark we wouldn't want to have them avoiding the product. It's a good idea, but you know how silly people can be." They didn't even look at us strange after that. We just moved on to the next idea.

"Okay so I was checking and the longest international portkey is London to New York. What do you two boys think could be the maximum distance?"

The two looked back and forth then said in concert, "That's probably about the maximum."

That was what we thought too and a floo was even shorter. We looked up to the sky and even though we couldn't see the moon it was in our mind. "If you put up a powerful magical gate do you think we could go across the world or maybe even further?"

The twins pondered that and Fred grabbed a bit of paper. "I suppose if you just connected two points like you did on these mirrors then yeah." He showed us his arithmantic equation and we examined it for accuracy. It seemed to check out and we said, "If you're right that's three hundred million miles."

George grabbed the paper and said, "Let me see that!"

A few moments later he put it down; the three of us stared at each other. Luna and I spoke first, "You could get to Mars."

The twins looked at us and said in unison, "Mars? I thought it was a star."

"You two skipped astronomy didn't you?" The nodded sheepishly. We didn't hold it against them they were brilliant wizards, but even then few wizards bothered to actually study the universe beyond the Wizarding world.

The two shrugged and then said, "Time to get some food. You want to come along Luna?"

We shook our head we were done brainstorming with them it seemed. On the other hand we had the calculations in front of us. We picked them up and returned to Hogwarts where we found our dorm room. Pulling out a book from one of our chests we looked at the cold hard facts. The book had the scales in AU which was one hundred and fifty million miles. So if we created a set of portals it would have a 2 AU capability.

That meant Mars, Venus, and Mercury were close enough. Of the rest of the planets only Jupiter was close enough to even consider at a little more than four AU. Especially since it had four intriguing moons named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto each one of them distinct and harboring potential. The book mentioned that the Galileo space probe was due to arrive close enough to Jupiter this year to begin a fourteen year surveillance mission.

More than six hundred million miles they had sent it and it was even now reporting back whatever findings it might have. Once again I felt like my vaunted ambition to rule the wizarding world was little more than a child ruling over some toys. Then again even Muggle endeavors paled in comparison to the vastness of space itself. That was the last thought we had for the evening.

After that it seemed like classes just got worse the next week. Umbridge was making an utter mess of class and it was just entirely clear that no one was really going to be learning anything. Study session on Wednesday included Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Neville Longbottom. I think Luna and I basically ended up teaching them the real lesson for the week and perhaps a bit more.

That weekend Fluer met us outside the carriage on a Hogsmeade weekend. She smiled at us as we exited the carriage and spoke to the rest saying, "Do you mind if I borrow Miss Lovegood?"

Fred and George shook their heads saying, "We'll catch up with her tonight."

No one else seemed to mind at all and we found ourselves sitting with her in Madame Puddifoot's. We'd never been here before and had no idea why Fluer would bring us here. She spoke French saying, "I have a job working with Gringotts part time now here in England."

That was nice I supposed. "Oh that's good, why are we here though?"

"I wanted to see you Luna." She looks at us as if unsure of herself.

"Well I wanted to see you too. I had a very nice time visiting this summer." She was exquisite, but we knew better than to think anything could come of our thoughts there.

"I am helping the Order of the Phoenix, you know."

Ahh this discussion I guess she was still upset with us. "Yes, I understand. I apologize, but well I really shouldn't ask for your help."

"Yes you said that in your letter, but who is helping you Luna? Certainly not the order I am sure. Morgana! I think no one in the Order even knows half of what you have learned about our real foe." She was upset about that.

What can we say to that? There is one person who knows just as much as I do and he's keeping them in the dark. Albus Dumbledore is keeping his own people in the dark probably for 'the greater good' even if it kills his people. Hell maybe even especially if it kills his people maybe some of them just aren't the types of wizard he thinks ought to go on living?

"You aren't going to say more are you Luna?" She looks at us distressed. "You'll just sit there and leave me in the dark? How can you do that and say I'm your friend? How can I just sit around not knowing?"

Now she was crying what could we say? "You know more than even Hermione does Fluer. I just well he kills people. No that's too gentle he slaughters people and bathes in their blood. Do you think I want to see that happen to you?"

She stared at us and screamed, "What about you damn it! What about you Luna? You are fifteen and he's a grown man. How close were you to death in that graveyard when you helped Harry Potter? What is it going to take to get you to see you need help with this? Your death!"

It seemed that even eighteen year old women were not pretty when they cried. Not even ones who were a quarter Veela. There was only one solution left then, "Okay fine you can help me."

So much for our resolve to do things on our own, but even the best resolve might have withered under the torrent of sadness that and upset radiating from the quarter Veela. It took her a few moments to realize what we had said and while she was recovering we handed her a napkin. She dried her eyes and we ordered some food. It was rather tasty. "I had another dream this summer."

She nodded and looked at us, "He did horrible things to a muggle family. Ever since then I've had my mental shields up even tighter, but every now and again I feel him out there. He's doing something horrible every time. If only I could know when and where he would strike next . . ."

That was it; we looked into Fluer's eyes and grinned, "Wait, that's it. If I release some of my shields I can see more. I'll know what he's doing and where he's going to go."

"Wait Luna, last time when it happened at my house you scrubbed your hands almost raw. Can you do this? I mean really do it?" There was deep concern in her eyes, but what other plan did we have? Nothing this was all we had right now.

"It's the only plan I have Fluer."

She shook her head, "Wait, okay, just wait. Maybe I will learn something from The Order. I think there might be a spy in the Dark Lord's camp. Just wait okay?"

I suppose her plan was better for that moment anyway. We nodded and she promised to meet up with us each Hogsmeade weekend to provide status reports. We both stood up and Fluer paid the bill. As we exited the building Fluer said, "There was . . . something else I wanted to say . . ."

"What?" We smiled at her and she looked at us strangely.

"Nothing, never mind it was silly. You had best get back to Hogwarts."

Sunday we met back up with Fred and George in the Screaming Shack. They showed us their current owl order sales and we smiled. Apparently with Umbridge around the Skiving Snackboxes were a big hit. That was good plus a few members of the Quidditch teams had ordered our jet packs. Once the other teams saw them in action we'd get more orders and the bottom line was looking very, very good. We'd be almost to a storefront in less time than originally calculated if things kept up so well.

The next day we were studying with Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, and even Cho Chang from my own Ravenclaw house. Just after we finished Hermione grabbed us and Harry. "Wait a second you two."

"What is it Hermione?" Oh look we said the same exact thing as Harry did.

The brown haired girl looked up a moment then spoke again, "We should expand this, make it bigger. For anyone who wants to learn. We can make it like a Defense Association?"

"You mean like a class?" Harry asked.

"Yes, like a class Luna can teach it and you can help her." Harry looked at us for a few moments.

"She's just . . "

"I'm just . . "

"You first."

We stumbled around each other and then Harry was quiet. "I'm just fifteen and I'm ahead a year. How many people will trust that I can teach them?"

"Come on Luna you and I created a brand new spell together. You tied with Harry for the Tri-Wizard tournament and everyone knows you saved Harry from twenty deatheaters. I might be a brilliant witch, but from what I have seen you are something of a super genius." We blushed at her effusive praise.

"Come on now, you're exaggerating. Right Harry? She's gone over board hasn't she?" Tell her Harry you're our friend. Tell her she's crazy.

He looked at us and said, "Actually if anything she's downplaying your abilities. Come on now, you've been leading this study group for the last three meetings. You know this stuff better than anyone maybe even some teachers."

Stupid boy was probably still smitten with us. "Look, you're really good with the praise, but come on who would be interested?"

Hermione smiled at that and said, "How about a deal then. I'll make up invitations for this Hogsmeade weekend and if we don't get any interest then it's settled. On the other hand if we do get interest you'll do it. Does that sound like a deal?"

"As long as the Advertisements say 'Luna Lovegood age 15 and renowned snorcack researcher' will be teaching?" There that ought to put a stop to anything.

The two of them looked at each other then back at us, "Deal!"

That very first meeting had Fluer watching on as we all got together in Hogsmeade where Hermione was giving out contracts with a pretty nasty hex if anyone gave out the secret. That was a rather nifty sort of hex. Impressive enough even if we could have done it better and with a head exploding curse too. Although I do suppose violating a schoolchildren's pact might not be worth having your head exploded. Ah well some things have their appeal and some things just don't.

After everyone who was interested signed the form Luna and I begrudgingly agreed to actually meet with everyone for the first class. After that Luna and I went off with Fluer. "You think you can really teach them Luna?"

"I don't know. I have EE's on all my O. and feel like I could just pass all the N.E.W.T tests now and just graduate out if I wanted to so I probably have the knowledge. Whether or not I can pass it on?" We shrugged.

"Will you try that Luna? You passed up a grade level; will you actually just try and graduate at the end of the year?" She looked at us strangely again. Not sure how to say the look was, it was just odd, like she was looking at us and also looking into or through us.

"I don't know most jobs have that although I have been getting good money on residuals from my articles in the Quibbler and Lovegood and Weasley's is doing really well by Owl order." It was a way to make galleons and we could do it and work on other things at school.

"You don't seem so sure."

We laughed it off, "What about you, will you become full time at Gringotts?"

"I don't know, maybe so. The goblins are not affected by Veela allure."

We looked at her and then said, "What I'd really like to do most is work on mixing muggle technology and magic. I look out at the solar system and I see places where people could live. All of them in reach and with magic many of them could be made habitable." Our voice was filled with passion as we spoke. I realized that we actually meant it, that we wanted to really change the world to make ourselves immortal in a new and different way.

"You would need money and investment, someone who knows wizarding banking maybe?"

We nodded, "I would enjoy having your help Fluer." At that we pulled out a sheet of paper with a design on it. "First though you have to prove you can help me."

Fluer stared at the paper for a long period of time examining the runes and then said, "Okay so this is a central ward stone. It is tied to some sort of records and it can connect one record to another if the originating record asks for the other record by number?"

"Close, but not records. Its mirrors each mirror sends a magical signal to the central wardstone. The signal includes the number for the mirror it wants to reach and the wardstone connects them to each other." She looked at the paper again and nodded her head.

"Yes I see. You have here at the bottom one times ten to the tenth power? I'm not sure what that is for?"

We looked at where she was pointing, "Oh well muggle telephone numbers use ten digits so I thought I would as well. That's ten billion possible combinations of numbers to start with. If you look here," We pointed at the section of our drawing with the ward stone center, "You'll see that it ought to be capable of ten times that amount, but there aren't that many magical people in the world."

Fluer chuckled and we talked a bit more about inconsequential things. Then it was time to go to Hogwarts. We stood up to leave and Fluer took our hand. "Luna? How do you feel about Hermione?"

We shrugged, "She's my friend, maybe in a different universe she and I could have been more, but that's probably never going to happen."

"There are no others in your life?" She pushed a strand of our hair over our ear.

"No, I guess not. Maybe when I get older I can run an ad in the personals section." I could see it then. Single white witch with voice of madman in her head seeks same.

Fluer shook her head and said, "No I hear that never goes well."

We stood and were about to pay the bill when Fluer said, "No, I have money from my job. Let me pay?"

We shrugged and she paid. When we returned to the school Hermione and we began working on something for the first D.A. class. The three of us put a charm onto a fake galleon that would let everyone know what time the D.A. classes were meeting. This galleon would melt in the hand of anyone over 18 and for those under that age they would have to have signed Hermione's paper to see anything at all. It wasn't perfection for secret meetings, but it would do. They would be passed out over the next day to the members of the D.A.

Unfortunately this was treading into very dangerous territory since we were basically working on a protean charm. So it was something exceedingly similar to a dark mark. There was no surprise in my mind when we dreamed about him that night.

We were outside a huge prison there was ocean all around the place. We were opening the spout on a strange leathery bag with runes drawn on it. "Blood of the innocent you will free my servants."

The runes on the bag glowed and blood poured from the bag onto a ward stone. The stone dimmed immediately and we walked to a large wall. A blasting spell shattered the wall and we moved into the prison itself. Dementors came, but the first few died at the hands of a Fiendfyre.The rest stayed away after that. Guards came, but we easily killed them they were no match for my might.

Up the stairs and down a hallway, "There you are Bella my sweet girl. Have you been waiting for me?"

We rip the cell bars away and an emaciated middle aged witch moves out from the cell. Her hair is a snarled tangle and her brown eyes look back at us full of disturbing insanity.

"Master! Oh I knew you would return to me. Oh yes, to bring me to your side so that we could kill and kill again." She came close and put her arms around us licking our neck. She smiled and reached down feeling the hardness just below our waist. "You have your wand ready for me master? Ready for your sweet sweet Bella?"

"Not just yet my slave. First we must free the others and then I will give you my wand." We moved through the hallways opening cell doors and she was behind us. She was at our heels like the mangy little bitch she was. Always in heat for us and always ready to do anything we desired.

The prisoners were free and we left with our Bella. She took a stunned guard with us and when we arrived in a house we began mating on his bloody corpse. It was amazing, powerful, intense and it was utterly sick and twisted. We felt something building in us something horrifying and somehow we woke up.

We vomited onto our bed heaved up everything in our stomach and then dry heaved after. Our entire body wanted to rebel at what we had felt. It was horrible so very horrible. How could any part of me want that? Who was that disgusting horrifying woman?

We cleaned up our mess and went downstairs to breakfast. Mostly we just stared at our food though.

At least until we picked up our copy of The Quibbler. That is when we found out that ten Deatheaters had escaped from Azkaban. One of them was named Bellatrix Lestrange and she was supposedly some sort of powerful witch with a number of kills to her name.

The picture of her was the exact same image of the witch Voldemort had freed. How much clearer could it be that Voldemort was rebuilding his little terror cell? Even the Prophet was reporting the same story, but the British Ministry was doing absolutely nothing. Although if one were to read the Prophet the Ministry was working 'night and day' to catch these escapees and that their escape had been years in the making and not just a single night's work for one very powerful wizard.

It was at least nice to see that the Quibbler staff reported a much less biased story, but at the same time

I was beginning to understand why he had done this in the first place. He must have seen that these tactics would work. I wondered how well he had learned his lesson from dying when trying to kill a baby.

I didn't think he had at all. I think he was going to replay his last war through and use the older Harry Potter as an example or maybe touchstone. But, why? Was it just that Harry killed him as a baby or was there something more? Did he know Harry had been a Horcrux?

I thought he might, but there was no guarantee. It's possible he forgot the entire creation when he screwed it up and blew himself to bits. Dwelling on that wasn't helping at all, but we did have another idea. What if he had given an item to one of his trusted Deatheaters?

Lucius was in the inner circle when I was sixteen. I could see how Voldemort trusted him with the Diary, but could there have been someone else he trusted? We look back on the articles about Bellatrix Lestrange. She was involved with nearly every raid or attack Voldemort had. Her picture from the time period showed her as a pretty enough witch and she was certainly a witch that he favored even if he treated her like a pet dog at most.

If I had gone down that path would I have wanted a very loyal witch? Maybe, she sounded smart and dangerous and extremely devoted to the cause. She had been in Azkaban though so that meant she couldn't have had the item on her. A little checking showed that there was a Lestrange vault in Gringotts and how much did I want to bet that the item was there?

That just left the problem of actually getting into the most secure place in the wizarding world. Also, we needed to do it without getting Fluer in trouble. Well we had said we'd let her help us, so we would certainly discuss it the next time we saw her.

The actual first study session or meeting of the Defense Association was in this special room Harry had found. Well technically I had found it when I was still in a male body and fourteen, then Harry found it on his own later, but I think that is beside the point here. As everyone filed in Ginny was saying, "That Umbridge! We should totally call this Dumbledore's Army just to get at her and the ministry."

We stood at the front of the class. "Honestly I don't care what you call it. What I am here to do is teach you the material you should be learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'll probably end up teaching lots of other things as well, but the most important task here is that I teach you to defend yourselves."

"Defend ourselves against what exactly?" Said Michael Corner he was from our own Ravenclaw house.

We pointed our wand at him and shot a green light at him. Everyone in the room screamed. He wasn't dead though since it was just a green light. "Against that, or I should say against the actual spell and not just a bit of green light. Because, let's face it everyone there are people out there who will kill you. There are people out there who want you dead. Every witch and wizard you meet on the street is holding a deadly weapon."

We had everyone's attention now. "Now since we don't have time, energy, or raw power to create a decent ward against the killing curse what should we do?"

Hands shot up. We pointed, "Yes Padma what will you do?"

"Dodge it?"

We nodded our head. "Exactly you will dodge it. That is what we will be practicing today and it is what we will be practicing next time. You will partner up and then I will show each of you a simple red paint spell. You will then take turns casting and dodging the spell. Are there any questions?"

Neville held up his hand, "Yes Neville?"

"What if we don't dodge so well?"

We nodded, "You will be hit by red paint. Hopefully that will make you wish to work better at dodging."

We moved about the room helping people with form and technique. Harry and Hermione were taken out of pairs and I had them assisting me in showing other students how to dodge. Ginny also ended up getting pulled out to help as well since they seemed actually quite nimble. Perhaps it was unfair of us to leave Ron in practice, but I never admitted to being fair now did I? Besides his manner of dodging looked more like clumsiness than any actual technique.

We were assisting another Ravenclaw named Cho Chang with her dodging technique when we felt it. It was an indistinct sort of nausea and a gentle whisper in our mind. Stab her, stab her and feel her blood flow over your hands. "Now try again, I'm just going to help someone else."

We moved over to Fred and George who had painted each other red by now. "I know you two can do better than this." The feeling faded some.

It helped to be away from that part of the room and George was speaking, "Well maybe, but he moves and I just know where he's gonna be." Of course he did. They shouldn't have paired up to begin with.

"You two come here and switch with these two will you?" The two girls we pointed at looked unsure.

We moved over to them, "Yes you ahh. . ."

"Alicia Spinnet. I'm in Gryffindor." Said the one

"Hannah Abbot, I'm in Hufflepuff." Said the other.

"Right sorry I'm not very good with names. Would you two please help Fred and George here?" The two nodded and went over each taking one of the twins as a partner. That still left the Horcrux somewhere in the room, but I didn't see it and as long as we stayed away from the area Cho Chang and her partner were in everything would be fine.

Before class ended we grabbed Hermione. "Hermione can you do me a favor and remind me of everyone's name quietly as they go?"

"You don't know them?"

We shrugged, "Maybe most of the Ravenclaws, but well I'm not very ahh . . ."

"Social?" We nodded yes that or maybe we just didn't think these people were important enough to remember? Then again Luna would have remembered them if they ever made any effort to know her. So maybe it's more than just being haughty and over full of our own importance.

The class ended and we said goodbye to each of the students by name even if we had Hermione behind us reminding us of their names.

With everyone gone Luna and I looked around for a Horcrux, but none was in the training area. However, we did recall that the room worked by walking back and forth in the hallway thinking about what you needed. There was a possibility that by needing a training area no one needed a Horcrux hiding spot.

We didn't have time right then to test the theory and had to rush off to another class. Later that evening we ended up sitting with Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, and Padma Patil in the Ravenclaw dorms. "I usually like to use sleakeasy to make my hair straight. What do you use Luna?"

"A brush." Was there anything else? Well apparently there was a potion, but I'd never brewed it before that was for sure.

The other three girls chuckled a bit, "What about lipstick? Surely you use that?"

"Yes Marietta I use it, and make up as well. Not a great deal though." This was true Luna knew how to put the stuff on and we generally did in the morning. "I generally use blush, a pink color for my upper and lower eyes, then a bit of lipstick. Sometimes I like to draw a star or other mark on my cheek."

Cho Chang spoke, "Well I guess we won't be asking you any tips."

We nodded, "That is sound advice especially since your skin tone and ours do not match."

"You're really strange Luna, but you're kinda neat too."

We looked at Padma now what do you say to that? "Thank you?"

The three girls chuckled a bit. We went back to a book on chemistry. It was quite fascinating really so we hardly noticed until one of the girls tapped us and said, "Luna?"

"Oh yes, sorry I thought we had finished our social interaction for the day." The three girls chuckled again.

Cho spoke after she finished chuckling, "We were just wondering if you fancied anyone. You know is there a boy you like a lot? Marietta was saying you were around Harry Potter and Ron Weasley a lot."

We looked at them and shrugged, "The simple fact is that I am actually attracted to witches instead of wizards. I do not have anyone that I fancy at this time though."

"Wait what!" That was in stereo.

"I believe I did not stutter. Would you like more information?" We looked at the three and they pushed away from us a bit.

"No, I'm good. I have ahh some studying to do." Cho said and walked away.

"Me too." Padma went

"Wow, you're a cunt licker. Who'd have known?" She certainly didn't sound like someone who was asking a question and then Marietta stood up and walked away. We heard her say, "Disgusting!" Just at the edge of our hearing.

When we woke up that morning there was quite a bit of discussion in the girl's dorm. "Is it true?" We looked over at the voice and I think we're extremely glad we warded our bed and bed curtains since apparently someone had attempted to do something and been burned for it.

We renewed the wards around our bed as we said, "Is what true?"

"That you are a witch's witch?" The murmuring became louder.

"Yes, that is true. No I am not interested in you or in fact anyone else in the dorm here. You have all been more than anti-social enough towards me to ensure that I would not ever be interested in any relationship with any of you." The murmuring only became louder.

"Oh please! We know you've always been Loony and now it's shown to be true." It was not, in fact, a good time to show these girls the error of their ways.

"As you can see my point has been proven." We walked through the crowd and went to the bathroom. There we showered and dressed for the day. There were more murmurs and hostility from the group as we exited our dorms, but we had grown used to it over the years."

Word had pretty much spread around the entirety of Hogwarts by the time we went down for breakfast. The Slytherin girls were the worst of all the girls. We'd come walking through somewhere and the Slytherin girls would scatter. As if we were carrying some form of disease. The Slytherin girls weren't the only ones though all the other houses got in on it too although Gryffindor and Hufflepuff quieted down rather quickly after members of the D.A. spoke out on our behalf.

The Slytherin boys though they were somehow worse than even the Slytherin girls had been. I don't think Luna and I could have counted the number of them telling us how we just hadn't had a 'real' wizard. As if any of them even knew what a real wizard was?

If that wasn't bad enough we found Dolores Umbridge, the fat toad who pretended to teach our defense class, getting into the act. "Today we're going to talk about dark desires."

The class groaned and she continued, "Yes, dark desires like a witch might be attracted to another witch. Such desires are at the very base of the dark arts and they are evil. There is no telling what sort of lies such a witch might tell. They skulk about and sneak looks in the bathrooms, they are just evil. These are the worst sorts of witches ever."

We hit her with the killing curse and she died on the spot. No, sadly not. We just stared out with our half whimsical smile and listened. I expect that she thought she was going to get a reaction. I can't imagine why she thought she would; we had been ignoring her since her very first class. "Miss Lovegood did you have anything to add?"

We stayed quiet. "Well answer me Miss Lovegood. Do you have something to add?"

This was a first for her. Usually she just hoped for some sort of reaction and seemed disappointed when she didn't get one. Most likely because her other favorite target, Harry Potter, apparently did respond to her little bullying tactics. "I asked you a question Miss Lovegood and if you don't answer then you will get a detention."

"I have nothing to add." Five words, I think that was the most we had ever said to her so far.

"That is a lie." She sounded so sure of herself and in a way she was right. It was a lie of omission. We had nothing to add that would be productive to the situation. We had nothing to add in order to satisfy her bullying nature.

We stayed silent and she cleared her throat in her utterly annoying way, "There we are class proof that witches like Miss Lovegood lie."

The only way we avoided killing her that night was the simple fact that we were busy trying to kill something else that was far more important than one stupid toad. Back and forth we paced the hallway thinking about trying to hide our Horcrux and a door appeared.

In we went and there it was. It was a diadem that sparkled like a ray of sunlight coming from a cloud. A soothing ever so soothing voice told us to take it, to ignore the nausea. Feel the spurt of blood from an innocent, it runs in rivulets down our hands. Sweet sweet blood and full of such great power, power beyond imagining just holding it in our hands.

Our heart beats fast in our chest and we see Hermione she is laying naked before us and saying, "You, I love you and only you. Come to me Thom come to me Luna and I will give you everything you ever wanted."

The nausea is all gone now. Our hands are on the outer part of the circlet for the diadem, we just need to put it on and we will be joined. Joined with our Hermione in an everlasting bliss. Even as we held it up to put on our neck we saw him. "There is more to the prophecy. We must find out what it is!" I am in a rage now, I blast a vase.

"Perhaps, the Ministry of Magic? There is a hall of prophecy there that holds these true prophecies. We could go there my lord."

I stare at him; stare directly into the eyes of Professor Snape. "Yes, a good plan. A very good plan my humble spy."

Then I yell, "Bella come!"

The middle aged witch comes in even as the diadem tries to get me to put it on. Instead of Hermione it is Bellatrix who whispers, "Come and join me, be one with my flesh."

We throw the circlet to the ground and hit it with a Killing curse. Bellatrix's voice speaks last, "We could have had such fun. . . "

We pant there in the room. Too close way too close that time if we hadn't accidentally connected with Voldemort we would have been gone for sure. Whatever it is it is getting worse each time. I can't dare trust myself with any more and yet I know there must be at least two left.

We sit on the floor with the dead thing that was once some sort of Diadem and it looked a little bit like the same one the statue of Rowena or 'The Gray Lady' wore. I wondered briefly as to what sort of idiot hides one of his most valuable evil artifacts in a school where his enemy teaches. You'd think that would be on some sort of 'things I won't do if I become an evil terrorist' list. I guess Voldemort missed that list and honestly we didn't mind.

We stood up and left the dead thing that was once a part of me in the room. From that point on the training room was henceforth free of nausea. Well at least on our part; Neville Longbottom did throw up when Angelina Johnson accidentally kneed him in the gut in the next defense class.

The interesting thing about that next class was that mostly no one had dropped out. Or at least no one that Luna and I remembered very well. It was actually the beginning of things getting better. Sure a few people asked us if we were attracted to them, but we were honest and polite enough to say they were pretty, but that we wouldn't ask them on a date if they didn't want us to.

For another day or so the girls in Slytherin continued to be utterly disgusted and the boys in the same dorm still went around suggesting Luna needed a 'real wizard'. Well at least until everyone in the dorm was subject to a sex changing curse that took nearly a day for the nurse to fix. It was odd how Professor Umbridge was also turned into a giant toad the very same night. The poor toad had even nearly been eaten by Crookshanks.

I really loved that cat! Even as Dumbledore stared down at us from his desk we were thinking it was just too bad if he'd been just a little bit faster, "Now I have no evidence that it was you Luna, but I think it would be greatly appreciated by the entire staff if a repeat of this doesn't happen again."

"You know it could have been the Fluttering Fillyflies I do keep getting little hints that they exist and are very often apt to curse wizards and witches who say bad things. Maybe if such wizards and witches knew well enough to be quiet the Fillyflies would leave them alone?" We fluttered our eyelashes and he so totally wasn't buying that act.

"I'll take that under advisement Luna. You should heed my advice and ensure that these Fillyflies do not act up again is that understood?" He was very serious now. Even angry I suppose and maybe he had some right since we had almost killed Umbridge.

"Of course sir, if I see any I will certainly inform them. May I go now?" Flutter lashes and look innocent. Bat his legillimency probe aside.

"You're dismissed and send Fred and George in would you?" We walked out and saw the two sitting outside.

The two saluted us as if we were a general. We saluted back and said, "Canary creams? I told you he would detect your work."

The two smirked and pointed at us, "What, me? No he just asked me to tell the Fillyflies to stop playing tricks on mean wizards and witches. I said that of course I would, but you never know with Fillyflies."

The two mouthed, "Brilliant!"

We just pointed to Dumbledore's office and said, "Your turn. Next time might I suggest less sugar in the mix? It will give you a little longer effect."

The two nodded and walked into Dumbledore's office most likely headed for a detention. After that things went back to more of a normal disdain that most everyone usually had for Luna and so we didn't have to hex anyone.

The next weekend had arrived again. Fluer was waiting for the carriage again and we exited with Fred and George in tow. The three were introduced and we went to a nice wooded area to talk and discuss the work we had done over the week.

"A car not all that different from one we had. Where is it anyway George?"

"Forbidden forest I think who knows what sort of monster it's become now." I looked over at the blue prints and we shook our head.

"Wizards will never buy it. Maybe if we decide to break into the muggle market we could use it then. Of course the statute of secrecy would be a problem." We started to cross the idea off.

Fluer took the plans and said, "I don't know you could maybe put some 'notice me not' here and here and the muggles would never know yes?"

Okay so we put that into a pile of ideas if we ever decide to sell on the muggle market and went on. That pile started to get even bigger as I added water purifiers and anti-disease amulets. There were other products though that went into a 'wizarding world' pile. The best idea of the day was a ten by ten mirror that was a mixture of a pensieve and omnioculars.

Fluer looked at it and said, "I've seen that in Muggle Paris it's a Télévisée!"

We looked at her, "The English word is Television and yes it looks a lot like one. In this case I guess you could put a memory in and show it to the audience or something else too right?"

Fred and George nodded, "Yeah we were a bit inspired by your ideas on muggle things and those mirrors. We haven't figured out how the camera would work, but basically you put the film in and it would play it back or a memory."

"What if they made a ward stone like the one you were designing for your Mirror Communicator?" Fluer looked at us with a huge smile.

We thought about it and if it worked, "Then you could broadcast to any other big mirror like this. It would be like muggle television stations. Heck I bet you could project a muggle movie and show it to anyone watching on this."

It hit us right there that what were doing with Fred, George, and now Fluer was real. If we actually created our Mirror Communicators and the Viewing Mirror we would radically change the Wizarding World.

Luna and I picked up one of the sheets in the 'Muggle World' pile and looked at it. Water purifier for one knut and licked our lips. We could do more than just change the Wizarding World really and truly; it wasn't a dream or a fantasy. This was real and it was like standing at the top of an avalanche just waiting for the last vibration.

"What are you thinking Luna?"

Fluer was staring at us from very close. We looked about and the twins were gone along with the things we had been discussing. "Where did they go?"

She chuckled, "They are growing boys, and they were hungry. Are you hungry Luna?"

She said it so strange it's hard to describe, like a question about food and yet more. We were sweating a little and said, "No, not hungry . . . actually I had a question for you."

"Oh," she sits back and looks at us. She takes our hands in her own and speaks, "Go ahead Luna, ask your question. I am here for you."

"Can you get into the Lestrange vault?"

She shook her head she almost looked disappointed as she did, "The Lestrange Vault? Non, no I don't even go down to the vaults. You would have to be the owner to get down there."

"What about Polyjuice?" Not that we had a hair or anything.

"No, there is a waterfall that dispels everything and Luna why are you thinking about breaking into the Lestrange Vault?" She's angry and surprised maybe.

Well she said she wanted to help us, but maybe we should test her resolve? "I'm going to tell you something now. It is something that may change our friendship forever. But, first I need you to swear that you won't communicate anything I tell you to anyone unless I say you can."

She's holding out her wand and swearing, "I swear on my magic that I will not communicate anything you tell me now to anyone unless you say I can."

She takes our hands again looking at us with wide blue eyes and it feels very weird. I wonder if we could ask her to stop looking at us like that.

We take a breath and begin, "You know some of this already. When I was twelve I was possessed by Tom Marvolo Riddle a sixteen year old boy who would later become Voldemort. It was a bit of his soul you see a part of him just as he had been back when he was sixteen."

She nodded and we continued, "It was Voldemort's first Horcrux. An item created by splitting your soul when you kill an innocent person. He would go on to make more, but you see this one was different. He became our friend, he couldn't kill Harry. What I said was true Harry did stab the diary, but what I didn't say was that I saved Tom."

"What do you mean?" She stares at us almost uncomprehending.

We point to our head, "We've been together since my first year. After I rescued him he stayed with me stayed in my head I guess you could say. We've grown together over the years; well I guess we're two parts of one person now."

She blinks, "No, you fought Voldemort to save Harry. You work with muggle things. You're fighting against The Dark Lord. How could you be him?"

There is anguish in her voice, "That's the thing Fluer. Whatever piece of him that was in the diary that is Tom Marvolo Riddle. It was a young school boy who was on the wrong path. But, he wasn't so far down the path that he couldn't turn around. He met me and it changed him. Since that time the two of us together have been changing."

There are tears in her eyes, but she has not quite started weeping. "So the person I know is who Luna or Tom?"

"Both I think, it's hard to separate us out now." It's true, I feel like I am Luna quite often and that she is me. I can't envision separating ourselves now.

I don't think I have ever been tackle hugged before so it was an entirely new experience. The French witch was on top of us hugging tight. Her thigh was between our legs and ours was between hers. It was like the duel over the summer and yet not quite the same. She kissed our cheek and held us close.

Her mouth was next to our ear and she spoke softly, "It explains so much do you not see. I have never had these feelings for a witch before, but you are not just a witch you are also a wizard. That is why I desire you so yes?"

I think maybe we have heard her wrong. Her face is close to ours and then even closer. Our lips touch and our mouth opens to her this is a kiss. Her tongue slips into our mouth and it feels like fire and heat, it feels electric and warm. I don't ever want it to stop. We are in her arms now we are holding her tight and the kiss goes on. It is a brief eternity of bliss. Then it is over and she speaks again, "I think I love you Luna and Tom."

Oh well that was, there aren't really words. She's still on top of us looking down at us like we are a snack she wants to eat. There's some voice asking us about Hermione who's Hermione? Oh right it takes a moment and then we just throw it out. "I well Fluer, I mean . . . "

Aren't we so eloquent? Really there were enough words in that response to accuse us of sesquipedalian loquaciousness right? She puts her mouth back on ours and we're kissing again, her soft tongue is sliding on the roof of our mouth and her lips suckle on ours. She gently nibbles on the bottom of our lip and then let's go.

It is just, so very I have no words. We hear her voice like someone might hear someone from the bottom of a pond. "Mumble mumble erhat glurple yes?"

We need a cold shower, a very cold shower. I can feel the wetness at our panties and our body is like the jet pack thruster at the danger zone. Concentrate Tom just concentrate and you too Luna. We pull ourselves into the moment, "What was that?"

"I will help you get into Gringotts, yes?" Oh is that what she said.

At that moment I think we would have offered her anything in the world so it is no surprise that we said, "Yes, whatever you want Fluer. You can have whatever you want."

She laughed and gently put her hand on our cheek, "Thank you Luna and I would want more now, but you are still fifteen. English law says we will have to wait until you are sixteen I think for anything more than this yes?"

Really? I hadn't even known that. Wait; did that mean Fluer had been looking up the pertinent English laws? She helped us stand and said, "We'll get you on the carriage back to Hogwarts yes?"

Yes that was a good plan. Onto the carriage and back to school. Our mental capacity didn't really come fully back until we were at school. It was about at that time we realized we were now in a relationship with Fluer Delacour. Fred and George just happened to be at the gates as we arrived.

"Did she snog you?"

We looked at them, "If you are asking if we kissed then the answer is yes. Snogging makes it sound as if we are some sort of strange hedgehog."

"I told you they would hand it over." Fred handed George a galleon,

"Indeed you did brother of mine. Foolish was I to take that bet foolish indeed. I was thinking it would be longer since they have been dancing about it the last few weeks." Now what did he mean by that?

No wait I understood. We looked at them imperiously though, "You mean to tell me that you have been gambling on whether or not Fluer and I would kiss?"

"Kiss, lords not just that. We were also betting on how long it would take you to tell each other you were in looove." They spread out the last word between them in a sing song and made it sound more like it had an 'r' in the middle.

"We are just beginning a relationship, don't be ridiculous." They laughed at that.

"Right, right you two just be good now and all that." They walked off laughing and we had half a mind to turn their hair blue.

Honestly in love. We weren't any such thing we hadn't allowed ourselves to be and we shouldn't be. Oh damn! Did you know that you can fall in love without ever realizing it? That you can be in love and not even realize it? Did you know that your heart can be hiding in chains and behind walls afraid to be hurt again and that someone can come in and just set it free? I didn't know I never knew that at least not until that very moment. What else could we say, "I love you to Fluer." She wasn't even around to hear it though. We'd have to wait an entire week before we could say it to her in person.

It was at the height of our happiness that doom came to Hogwarts. Dolores Umbridge was made an Inquisitor for the Ministry of Magic. She was a giant pink tick sucking away at the lifeblood of the school and all the while Dumbledore sat back and allowed it to happen.

Harry and Hermione came to me after two days of the terror. "Show her Harry, she'll know exactly what it is."

We were in the room of requirement and Harry showed his hand on the back was a white scar that read, "I must not tell lies."

I did indeed know exactly what it was. "Bloodquill, who's been making you use a bloodquill?"

"Umbridge . . ." Oh that toad, that miserable damned toad.

"I assume you have spoken to McGonagall?" the words are clipped and harsh.

"I well; I just told her she was being unfair. She said to keep my head down." He looked at his shoes. Gods how much he must be used to exactly this at his home with his aunt and uncle? He was the perfect victim unwilling to tell authority anything and almost willing to suffer in silence.

Hermione looked at us and said, "I was thinking essence of dittany . . ."

We rooted through our robes and pulled out a healing salve. Yes we always had some on us now. "Here put this on it Harry."

He took the bottle and smiled, "Thanks that will be a great help."

He looked about to rush off and we said, "Wait, just wait right there."

We looked at Hermione who was still holding his arm with a clearly fond look. "I don't think that's quite enough. Do you?"

"What do you mean?" He looked at us with those weird green eyes. His scar faded and we wondered for a moment just what Dumbledore's plan had been. No what the plan was. This is why he's not doing anything; this is why he's sitting back. For some reason Dumbledore wants Umbridge to torture Harry.

Why? It hits me son of a goat it hits me like a lightning bolt. Harry is meant to be a sacrifice. The seventh Horcrux will go out to meet Voldemort on the field of battle. There the Horcrux will be destroyed by the killing curse and the boy with it, but it is not really a field of battle. No, it is a sacrificial altar and the boy has come willingly. The killing curse hits him and he dies, but his willing sacrifice sends it back again to Voldemort and so the seventh Horcrux and Voldemort die leaving only the rest of the items.

Dumbledore can hunt those items down at his leisure in fact he knows that the Diary and the Locket are destroyed even now. That leaves him only five to find and he has time for that. Maybe even more time than I think because what if he did not destroy the Philosopher's Stone?

I stare at Harry potter as this all comes to me and we shiver. "I mean to put a stop to this Harry. That is what I mean."

Hermione and Harry look at us even as we hear a whisper on the wind. The 'greater good' it is all for the 'greater good'. Well that's just too farking bad because I refuse the damned 'greater good'. "How?"

They both ask us the question and they mean to ask how I will stop the bloodquill. "That is easy; we'll make your hands invulnerable in fact we'll make it so any bloodquill that touches your hands will break."

"There's no spell for that." Hermione says with assurance.

She's right there isn't and we don't have time for Arithmancy. "No, there isn't but I know a ritual. I'll perform it later tonight and place the protection on your hands in the morning."

Harry stares at us and says, "You're sure Luna? I mean the salve will work fine."

"Yes no need to . . ." We put up a hand and Hermione stops speaking.

"I don't have many friends Harry. You and Hermione know that, but for the friends I do have I will do almost anything. I promise you that this is no trial for me, no difficulty. You are not putting me out and you will let me do this for you unless you want to go tell McGonagall the full unvarnished truth?"

He doesn't want to do that, too sure that she'll rebuff him again I expect. Well he was probably right at that. The two leave after hugging us and more promises from us that we will not do anything all that dangerous.

It was quite true we weren't going to do anything dangerous. At least not yet, but we were going to put a stop to Umbridge. Whether or not we could put a stop to Dumbledore or Voldemort was yet to be seen, but Umbridge. She was not going to be a problem after this.


	9. Chapter 9

It is late at night and a young girl lies in a circle of silver runes. Each of these runes has been painstakingly drawn with pure silver and a brush made from thestral hair. The young woman is naked and she is a little bit hesitant. You'd be hesitant too if you were us that's for sure.

There is a cup between our legs and nothing at all about this is even slightly erotic. That doesn't matter though because this is a blood ritual. We hold the item we need to use in our hands and look at it. It seems enormous a physical impossibility and yet it will work. We begin drawing magic into the runes.

"With silver runes and power of night I light the path"

The runes glow bright.

"Under the half moon and with naked skin I light the path."

There is a humming sound.

"With rod in hand and trembling awe I ask for protection."

The rod in our hand glows now. We thrust it between our legs and it hurts like hell. A candle flame would seem gentler than this, but we put the pain aside so we can finish.

"Virgin's first blood I offer for protection against the darkness. Magic heed me and grant my request!"

We pull the rod free and the cup slowly fills drip, drip, drip. We wait the pain slowly fades to a dull ache and the runes slowly dissipate into nothing. Slowly we get up and take the cup in our hands. We take a vial and fill it from the cup, luck is with us and we are able to fill a second vial as well.

We clean the cup and get dressed. Then we begin working on a pair of gloves. At some point we go back to our dorm room and sleep. When morning comes we head down to breakfast, there we find Harry Potter.

We walk over to him and say, "Harry you forgot these gloves last study session. You should put them on right now so you don't lose them."

He looks at us strangely then his mouth makes a bit 'O' and he takes the gloves from us. He puts them on and they disappear. He grins and we wave then walk off, "Have a nice day Harry."

The rest of the day is something of a blur. By the time night arrives and Harry is in detention and Luna and I are sitting in our room waiting nervously. Waiting to see what the ugly toad would do when each and every dark artifact she uses is destroyed the moment it comes into contact with Harry's hands.

Apparently we were very tired though because we fell asleep. We were late for breakfast even and by the time we got down there were murmurs all around. Umbridge was dead, or she had just left, Umbridge was in jail or Harry was going to get sent there. Albus Dumbledore himself came to the room and suddenly everyone was quiet.

"The Ministry Inquisitor will no longer be with us."

There was a cheer the likes of which might pull down the ceiling. The old goat continued as the sound died down, "As sad as you may be it is my duty to inform you that Dolores Umbridge was in possession of fifteen blood quills. Blood quills, as you may or may not know, are an artifact which has been deemed illegal by the ministry itself. She was found in possession of these artifacts by our own Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall who will be receiving an official order of Merlin from the Ministry itself for ferreting out a stain upon the Ministry's honor."

He took a sip of some pumpkin juice then spoke some more. "In light of this departure Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and myself will be sharing duties as the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher for the rest of the year.

That was all Dumbledore had to say about that. Harry Potter on the other hand was much more forthcoming and in front of the entire D.A. "So Luna made these invisible gloves right. I had them on when I went to detention and Umbridge puts a quill in my hand. Bang!"

He slams his hand on the table, "It explodes, surprises me some, but doesn't hurt any. Umbridge looks at me and says, 'Potter try not to break them' then she hands me another. This time it explodes right in her hand. She screams like someone was murdering her and gets Professor McGonagall."

Everyone is hanging on his words, "Well the professor comes in and looks at me as Umbridge says, 'The boy's doing this on purpose look' then she shoves another blood quill in my hand and it explodes too.

"Professor McGonagall looks at her and she says, 'Is that a blood quill?'"

"Umbridge looks back at her and says, 'Of course it is. He needs to be punished!'"

"Then Professor McGonagall stuns her right there and heads out to call the Ministry. A bunch of aurors come in and they find out she had twelve more blood quills. That's about all they needed and off they went with Umbridge in tow."

The protections worked and the confundus built into the gloves ensured that Umbridge would be confused as to the correct path. A compulsion added in that would make her speak with Professor McGonagall and my revenge was as complete as it was impossible for Dumbledore to detect since the gloves had dissolved soon after as per the runes inside them.

Even as Harry smiled widely and everyone in the room gave a cheer we pondered giving out a pair of similar gloves to deatheaters, but it was too risky. Paranoia and a certain person named Murphy suggested that such a plan would inevitably go wrong. In any case we had a class to teach so we stood up after the cheering ended and said, "Well as fun as the reminiscing has been I still have a class to teach. Now remember today we're going to work on summoning or transfiguring something to block your opponent's spell."

There was a chorus of groans and we pointed to the door, "This is not a required class and I hear that Defense may actually be a decent class again. You are all welcome to depart."

A few people took that as their queue to go, but a majority of the people decided to stay. So we taught them how to summon or transfigure something into the path of an oncoming spell. "Steel works best and then other elements. I would suggest that no one use Uranium or any other radioactive element though as there is some possibility that Uranium and the killing curse might have a horrifically explosive effect. Now please begin pairing up."

I wasn't really sure if that was true about Uranium. The element in enough quantity of refined Uranium 235 literally exploded in nuclear fury and had decimated the city of Hiroshima even if they had used Plutonium in their Trinity Test and on Nagasaki. Wasn't it possible though that a curse meant to kill might turn even a small chunk of mostly Uranium 238 with a minority of 235 into a block of radioactive death? Well I certainly wasn't willing to test that theory out at close range.

The next day in potions Snape had us stay after class. He looked at us like he might have accidentally eaten a bug and didn't want to spit it out for fear of being rude. "Miss Lovegood, the Headmaster has informed me that Hogwarts will be competing in eighty-fifth Wizarding Schools Potions Championship. You will be on the team."

"Isn't there supposed to be a potions club or something for a school to compete?" Back when I was in school there was a potions club. We competed in the same competition at the time for Professor Slughorn.

"It is not a requirement. We simply need to send students who are capable to the competition. You are the most capable student and I suspect you have free time. Therefore you will compete." What an arse blight he was. Then again he was the same person we'd seen talking to Voldemort himself.

"Well thanks for the invitation professor, but I really can't fit it in this year." We turned and began walking off.

"Miss Lovegood, it is not a request. You will attend and you will win. Your potions grade depends on it."

I was tempted to tell him that his nuts would rot off before we did any such thing, but we did need the grade if we actually wanted to take the N.E.W.T on potions someday.

"Of course professor I'd love to help you. Just bring me to the competition and bring me back. I'm terribly sorry for the miscommunication." I don't think I've ever lied so poorly in two sentences before.

We walked off with a new project and wondered just why Dumbledore let Snape stay. He had to know the man was a Deatheater. Maybe he was a double agent? Then I realized that I knew he was a Deatheater and I knew he was going to see Voldemort. What better way to find out what was happening!

Of course Snape would notice tracking charms and monitoring charms. With that in mind when we finished classes for the day we grabbed Hermione. "Hermione, your parents have a VCR right?"

"Yes, Luna you saw it when you visited." She looked at us confused.

We nodded, "Is there a device that can record movies onto the VCR tapes? With sound and everything?"

She nodded again, "Yes, it's called a video camera. Why?"

Aha! "If I wasn't dating Fluer I'd kiss you right now. Thanks Hermione!"

We ran up to the Owlery and grabbed a quill.

October 20, 1995

Dear Fluer,

We're meeting in Hogsmeade again this weekend. Can you do me a favor and go into Muggle London. I need at least three Video cameras and ten video tapes.

Thanks a whole bunch!

Your girlfriend,

Luna

Once we finished the letter we began working on some ideas. We'd need to make sure the battery stayed charged. After that we would miniaturize the video camera with a spell. Then we'd need to make sure it only turned on when Snape went to meet Voldemort. The thing is that the spells and runes needed to do that wouldn't be the same as any spells to remove tracking and monitoring charms. This all meant that if we got this to work we could record Voldemort when he met with Snape!

We met up with Fluer the next day and rushed into her embrace. Everyone in our carriage chuckled at that, but we kissed her quick and hugged her anyway. Our heart beat a little faster in our chest and everything felt unreal even as we said, "I love you Fluer."

The French witch giggled and picked us up saying, "I love you as well Luna."

Hermione and Harry sat close in the carriage and we smiled back at the brown haired witch. She had been our first love, but apparently not our last. Luna suggested we should help her and the boy she was with figure things out, but I declined. It was surely not our area of expertise at all and that is an understatement.

Fluer set us down and pulled out a bag, "I have the things you asked for Luna. I hope we are not planning anything kinky?"

We blushed bright red, "No ahm no . . ." Would she let us videotape her? Okay get your mind out of the gutter Tom and Luna you too.

We shook our head to clear the thoughts, "You can help though I have some plans I drew up last night."

Off in a nice meadow area we destroyed one video camera in the process, but were able to miniaturize the second and set it up to record when it was in the presence of the maker of the dark mark. Not too hard to do there since I knew how the dark mark worked and could tap into its magic if I wanted to and if I had a loyal minion to use.

Maybe there was some part of me that said I could go find these people and use the dark mark, but that very same part of me had far too much enjoyment in senseless killing. How close could I get to that path without becoming exactly what I was fighting against? Yet at the same time I knew we would have to kill those same followers or stop them in some way. Morality is a very difficult topic when one part of you was a sociopath and the other was distanced from reality for most of her life. "Fluer if I had a way to torture every Deatheater into confessing should I use it?"

The French witch stopped drawing on her paper and looked at us. "I think we should not do that Luna. There is dark magic like say Fiendfyre and then there are actions that make you evil like the Dark Lord yes?"

We nodded, "Even if it means we'll end up facing them on a battlefield some day? We'll have to kill some of them then." That option was less troubling to Luna and myself.

Apparently it was less troubling to Fluer as well, "Some aspects of magic like compulsion and torture they remove free will too much. Killing may be something we must do to these people who follow the Dark Lord, but better to let them die on their own terms I think."

"Maybe so Fluer." That was the end of that discussion and not too much longer afterwards Fluer and we finished the project. We had a device prepared to place onto Snape and then we sat in Fleur's embrace for a long period of time. Somehow my mind slowed down and I just enjoyed the moment. Luna did as well. It was like the beach all over again, but even better. It was a moment of comfort, happiness, and love. Like nothing we'd truly ever experienced before and something we definitely wanted to experience again.

"There's still the matter of the Lestrange Vault." Yes, we broke some of the mood, but the world was still out there and it wouldn't stay put just because Luna and I were enjoying ourselves.

Fluer nodded, "Yes and when I was shopping for you today I thought of a plan."

"You didn't mention that earlier." We looked at her curiously.

She smiled and kissed us softly. Oh we wanted to melt right there. "That is because we were having a nice time. You needed a moment to relax and recharge. A moment together with me yes?"

There was the promise of more in her voice. Promise of something we'd read about in books, but never actually tried yet. So to be sure we not only, couldn't argue, but also didn't want to argue with her. "Very true Fluer, so what is your plan?"

She nodded then said, "Okay so polyjuice potion wouldn't be enough because there is the magical cancellation I mentioned. However, three doses would work fine as long as the person being Bellatrix Lestrange looked like her at a cursory glance between sips."

"How could you do that without magic?" I didn't know of any muggle way to do it.

Fluer did though. "When I was shopping in Muggle London I saw many places with Halloween costumes. There was makeup for the face and hair, to make someone look like someone else. It can be done with this makeup and masks."

"So someone dresses up to look like Bellatrix. Then takes polyjuice to look like her. Then, when the magic is cancelled, they just take another sip right after?" Good plan actually.

Fluer nodded, "We just need someone who is the right height and who knows what they are looking for."

"Also a piece of Bellatrix's hair." She frowns when we say that.

"Merde! Well it is still a good plan." She sighs gently.

We nod and hug her close. She feels so nice against us, like she is meant to be there. "Yes a very good plan. If we find her hair we'll put it to use."

We spent Saturday and Sunday with Fluer that Hogsmeade weekend. Fred and George didn't seem to mind and it was simply beautiful even if it could become very frustrating at times. Frustrating in the sense that we would melt into heat and our body would ache with painful need, but there was no release. Fluer was adamant that we all control our desires until Luna was sixteen and therefor legal in England.

Nights were a different story and since Luna and I were on our own we broke our own personal vows not to touch ourselves until we were sixteen. The results took the edge off and a cold shower each night did the rest.

The next weekend we were away to compete in the eighty-fifth Wizarding Schools Potions Championship. On the trip to the Championship with Snape and a few other Slytherin Potions students we made sure to put the camera on Snape. It was pretty easy to do with the levitation and sticking charms and the device was so small now it would never be noticed.

Fluer got herself a ticket to watch the championship and we saw her quietly smiling at us while we performed. By the end of the day Hogwarts won the competition. It had really felt terribly unfair though. Almost like stealing candy from a man without arms. But, the important fact was that Snape was now carrying our recording device. Oh and Fluer gave us a bouquet of Roses. Luna prepared a salad with the petals later and it was really tasty. Luna also candied some of the petals with sugar and we kept those in a tin eating them over the rest of the week. What a kind gift that was honestly a dozen roses made for two excellent salads and a weeks' worth of tasty candy. Is it any wonder that roses are so popular as gifts between lovers; the petals are so very tasty and also very low in caloric intake.

Two days after the competition our camera sent a signal and we retrieved it from Snape in Potions class. The room, called the room of requirement by some, where the D.A. trained was available and apparently it could have a VCR and TV in it. We sat on a comfortable chair and began watching the video.

"You're back, any information on the Lovegood whelp?" Looking at the creature even on TV was enough to make us feel a little ill.

"She's quite smart, but nothing terribly bright. I suspect she was just lucky in the competition." That was Snape speaking poorly of us and our skills.

"Fine, fine you will be available the first Saturday in November yes? I want you there at the ministry to help find the prophecy."

"Yes master. I will be there."

"Good and I will send more dreams to the boy. I know he has a connection with me and I will use it. Make him think his precious godfather is in trouble and he will come running." He might have been right there if he was actually connecting with Harry these days and not Luna and I.

"The boy is foolish like that master."

There was more planning then as Snape Told Voldemort what the Order was doing and that no one in the Order even knew about the proposed attack on the ministry. It was Tuesday the twenty fourth so we had eleven days to work with in the planning and preparation department. The most important part of that planning and preparation would be making sure that Luna and Fluer were not caught in anything illegal. The second part would be killing every person who went with Voldemort.

The first thing we did was get a portable swam from Fred and George then we began working on it. A swamp is mostly water, but what if the trees and grass were all made out of sodium? The change to the seemingly harmless prank swamp was easier than I expected. Luna and I also changed it so the grass was everywhere under the mud. The likelihood of anything surviving after we tossed out one of these new portable sodium bombs was quite low and anyone who did survive would probably be unconscious and covered with mud.

Next up was a rocket pack, easy enough to make that simply a rocket. Add in a point me spell and it would home in on the person you aimed it at. The final touch would be an explosion of liquid steel. This was yet another device with limited survivability.

Extendable ears we modified to extendable eyes, then added a blasting hex onto the end of the eye. Not quite as deadly as the two other items, but it had the advantage of not needing to be in the same room as the person you were attacking.

On Saturday we took time to give Fred and George some basic ideas for a more powerful rocket that would provide constant boost and have enough space for people to live in. Plus some haphazard ideas on magical terraforming and just asked them to keep the ideas for now. Then we worked with them on a few other products and said goodbye.

Sunday we found Fluer and told her about the attack on the Ministry. "Yes, we have heard about it."

Oh damn, well that changed my plans, or did it? "You know when it's going to occur?"

"Sometime on Saturday evening, but we are not quite sure what time though."

We touched Fluer on the shoulder, "Okay we can work with this. I think I can make a detection ward that would tell us when the Dark Mark entered the Ministry. I can apparate in and use some of the items I have made and then set off an alarm for you."

She frowned and said, "You'd go in and face him alone Luna, no!"

We shook our head, "No I'm not facing him alone. I'm going to drop a few extraordinarily powerful weapons into their midst and then apparate away. When you guys arrive you should find a room full of dead people."

She scrunched up her forehead, "How?"

We pulled out a regular portable swamp and tossed it down around us. The meadow area we were in turned into a rather decent sized swamp. "This, but imagine that instead of a swamp it was one big fiery explosion."

We were right in the middle of the swamp and if it had been one of my new sodium bombs we would be dead. Fluer looked around the area and just stared maybe trying to contemplate just how large the explosion would be. "You'll be able to get away before the explosion happens?"

"Yes, then you come in with the Order. If Bellatrix is there you grab some of her hair if any s left or take a sample of blood. That's the important part for you here." She nodded slowly at that.

She sat a few more moments in the middle of that swamp then spoke again, "What about Dumbledore won't he know who did it?"

"I don't see how. The twins have their portable swamp sure, but this is something entirely new. No one had ever seen it and I don't think any other wizard could even conceive of it. He might think someone cast Fiendfyre, but there won't be any magical signature of a caster for that spell." Yeah, we'd thought about this. In a way it was pre-meditated murder maybe not so far gone from what I had once did to that muggle girl to split my soul.

How much different was I now? Had I just changed sides on this little war or was this really different? Honestly I can't say all I can really say is that I feel bad about what I did to that poor little child and that I won't feel any remorse at all for the scum sucking bastards that follow my diseased soul piece. If that makes me an evil Sociopath then so be it.

Fluer was looking at us tough with perhaps a bit of trepidation. "You are sure you wish to do this Luna?"

Maybe she was seeing that sociopathy in me, but hey at least I didn't have our portable swamp become a 5 square centimeter of plutonium right? Even so we held her in our arms and spoke softly, "I may not be him Fluer we went separate ways when I chose a different path with Luna. So now I guess I may be on the side of the angels here, but I don't think you should ever mistake me for one of them."

"Oh Tom, that is all you isn't it? But Luna agrees with your plan I think and to me you are both my angels." She was hugging us and our foot slipped in the mud of the swamp, down we both went to be coated by the filthy sticky mud. It was cold, sticky, and felt rather disgusting. The two of us ended up wrestling around then getting out of the stuff and I cannot imagine any other activity we might have done that would have been less erotic than rolling about in the mud with Fluer.

Harry stayed behind to talk with us that Monday after a D.A. session. "There's a prophecy." He said slowly, "I don't know what it is exactly, but I've heard people talking about it."

"What sort of Prophecy Harry? "Okay so we knew something about this, but it was best not to spill the beans here.

"There's a prophecy about me and Voldemort. My Uncle Sirius was talking about it on those paired mirrors you gave us."

I may not have mentioned this or I may have, but I think prophecies are utter rot only gullible idiots believe in them. Then again, apparently Voldemort became a gullible idiot. "Well I don't know what to say Harry."

"I don't know what if it's true?" He looks upset.

"Depends on the Prophecy I guess." We looked him in the eye. Those strange green eyes of his. Worst color imaginable I think.

"My uncle sort of told me that it says something like this," he pulled out a bit of paper and read from it, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies..."

Well that was a bunch of dreck, "Who heard this prophecy?"

"I'm not sure but Dumbledore did and someone else who told Voldemort. There's more, but my uncle didn't know it and whoever was listening didn't hear it either." He looks rather concerned at this. Probably wants to know who told Voldemort and got his parents killed.

How very perfect for Dumbledore. Here he has this prophecy and he has Voldemort who entirely thinks prophecies are utter dreck. What better way to prove the prophecy wrong than to kill the child it is about. Maybe Dumbledore lets on that the child is the son of that brilliant muggleborn witch? The same one he thinks he might teach some protective blood magic?

More pieces of that old puzzle snap into place in my mind. Voldemort goes to prove the prophecy wrong and just like Dumbledore wanted he gets himself killed even as he creates his seventh Horcrux. That same Horcrux is also in play as Dumbledore's pawn and can later be sacrificed to kill Voldemort again at a later date.

We look at Harry even as those thoughts spin in our head, "So you believe this prophecy?"

"I don't know it seems too real to be a fake. What if it is real? Should I find out what it says?"

Hell no, you'll just be in our way, that's what I was thinking. What we actually said though was, "No, in all honesty I think you should leave it be Harry. No good comes from messing with prophecy."

"Yeah maybe you're right. I keep feeling like Siirus might be in danger though." He shrugs and I recall a few minor dreams where I had seen someone threatening a black dog or even Sirius black in the Ministry of Magic. I knew that Voldemort was trying to tempt Harry into a rescue.

"Just call him on your mirror any time you feel that way." We patted his shoulder and hoped like hell he'd be intelligent enough to avoid any sort of rescue if he accidentally got any dreams.

"Yeah, I will thanks." He turned to go then paused a moment then said, "Hey Luna?"

"What is it Harry?"

"Do you think Hermione likes me? Could you maybe ask her what she thinks about me then let me know?" What? Why was I in the middle of this?

Oh never mind, "Yes, I'll do it. Now let's get to class."

We go our separate way and then to bed. The next morning I find Hermione at her own impromptu study session. "Harry Potter is somewhat infatuated with you"

Hermione stares at us with her mouth open. "I thought I would inform you and I am supposed to ask you how you feel about him and then relay the information."

She laughs, "Oh Luna could he have picked a worse person to be his go between?"

"Does that mean you are not interested in Harry? The two of you certainly seem to get along and have some similar qualities. If we were doing a Venn diagram you would find yourselves neatly intersecting in many categories." This is why I hated these things. Emotions are hard enough when Luna and I have them, why do I need to be stuck in the middle of other people's emotions?

Hermione took a breath and said, "Tell him that I like him a lot. Or even better I'll tell him and save you the trouble."

That was very nice of her, "Thanks Hermione. I hope it goes better with Harry than it did with Victor."

That was the end of the conversation and the end of our study time.

We mailed our Dark Mark tracker to Fluer and she put it at the Ministry building. Luna and I kept getting dreams about the Department of Mysteries and Sirius Black in danger there. They were getting stronger even with our shielding and I was already sure Voldemort wanted Harry to come. A bit of polyjuice would certainly fix that problem if necessary.

On Friday we sent a letter to Fluer making sure she was ready, then on Saturday we waited. Then we fell asleep and there was Voldemort right at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries with Sirius Black at his feet, "Tell me where the prophecy is!"

"Oh the pain, ohh it hurts!" He screamed as Voldemort cast a Crucio at him. I do believe that had been the worst acting I had ever seen. In fact it was so bad that Luna and I woke up.

However, there was no signal that the Dark Mark had arrived at the Ministry yet. Then again, there probably wouldn't be unless Harry went to save his uncle. We took a sip of polyjuice, then 'Harry Potter' snuck out of Hogwarts and went to the Ministry of Magic.

We disillusioned ourselves and made it down to the Department of Mysteries. That's when my Dark Mark detector went off. Pretty good timing on Voldemort's part I think.

Luna and I made our way to where Sirius body was in the dream, but there was just a sphere for a prophecy. Luna and I had already begun ensuring that there was a hole in the wards we could use to get away as we approached so we were ready when twelve figures emerged from the shadows.

We looked at them and noted a significant lack of Voldemort, well that just sucked. We sighed softly and said, "I suppose this is the part where I ask for Sirius Black and you ask me to give you the prophecy?"

Lucius Malfoy smirked and said "It is the part where you learn the difference between life and dreams, Potter. However, you are correct about one thing give me the prophecy, or we start using wands."

Some of these people we knew from our younger life and others we only knew from pictures we had studied. There in this hall of prophecies were Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, Avery, Walden Macnair, Crabbe, Nott, Augustus Rookwood, Jugson, Mulciber, and Bellatrix Lestrange. "I guess Voldemort wasn't interested in a rematch?"

"Just give us the Prophecy boy." We pointed a rocket at him, tossed down one of our sodium bombs, and tugged on our apparition device. Just outside the Ministry of Magic we heard the explosion of sound. The very top of the building shuddered, but it didn't come down. At that point we sent a signal to Fluer then simply walked away and went back to our dorm room.

That morning The Daily Prophet had the Headline, "Twelve Die in Ministry Explosion!" it went on to report, "Bellatrix Lestrange, noted escapee from Azkaban, was found with other escapees and prominent members of wizarding society. Their bodies torn apart by a magical explosion the likes of which this reporter has never seen. Ministry authorities are not reporting on exactly what happened, but Narcissa Malfoy, the bereaved widow of Lucius commented, "My husband died defending the ministry against that horrible witch and her goons."

Lucius Malfoy, who was known to be a under the Imperius curse during the first war against he who must not be named, died in the explosion. Can it be possible that he somehow found out what the escapees were planning and went to the ministry to stop them?"

There was more, but we stopped about there and picked up The Quibbler, "Twelve Deatheaters Killed in Ministry Explosion!" now that was better already. "Reports have come in that twelve Deatheaters, followers of the dark lord who is even now still roaming free, were caught in an explosion at the Ministry of Magic: Department of Mysteries. They were apparently close to the prophecy room when the explosion occurred. Sources suggest that the famed Order of the Phoenix may have come onto the sight first and reported the deaths to the auoror corps, is it possible that the Order and the followers of the Dark Lord were involved in a deadly spell duel?"

I couldn't exactly go to our reporter and tell them more, but it was a much better dose of accuracy. Then again it was also interesting to see what Narcissa Malfoy had said about her husband defending the ministry against the Deatheaters. Was that how the Dark Lord wanted this played or was she looking to self preservation now that some of the more dangerous Deatheaters were dead? She could easily be hooking her carriage up to a winning thestral.

Speaking of Carriages we were coming off the carriage and stepped into Fluer's arms. She was a bit limp and listless so Luna and I ended up doing the escorting. We arrived in the meadow we had met in many times already and she looked at us. "I have never seen anything like that Luna it was . . . horrible. It was one thing to talk about, but to see it to see the room so destroyed and eleven corpses."

She shivered some and we hugged her close. It took her a moment before she responded to the hug. "Eleven what about Lucius?"

"A steel statue of him was there. He was dead inside it . . ." She looked off into the distance. It was odd to see her so stiff and cold almost like she was in physical shock.

We rubbed her back gently and said, "Sorry Fluer if I had known it would affect you . . ."

She stopped us with a soft kiss. "Just hold me, no talking, but take this first."

She handed us a vial, most likely some part of Bellatrix Lestrange, and we held her close. There was a long time while we just sat together hugging her in the cool November sun. She spoke softly after perhaps an hour or two, "Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, Travis Avery, Walden Macnair, William Crabbe, Victor Nott, Augustus Rookwood, Samuel Jugson, Herbert Mulciber, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Lucius Malfoy. Albus knew them all you know and he wept I think we all cried even though they were horrible people. It was one thing to talk to see the meadow become a swamp and think of an explosion, but to see it . . . Luna you can't ever let anyone know how to make what you made. In the wrong hands it would be terrible. No one could ward against that no one would be safe."

She hadn't seen what the muggles could do hadn't even envisioned what someone with a decent knowledge of chemistry or nuclear science could do with simple transfiguration. Luna and I now wondered just how safe the world would be if wizards learned more about muggle things. "What if I'm not any different? What if the only difference between me and Voldemort is simple distaste for blood on my hands?"

"Oh . . . Tom and Luna no." She grabbed us and held on tight. "No it can't be. Yes, you killed his followers, but they were there to torture Harry Potter into giving them a prophecy yes? Twelve adults there to torment one boy and what else have they done? What other things have they done for Voldemort. Maybe your device was powerful and maybe it does not belong in the wrong hands, but they were also wrong."

She sighs softly as she holds us tight, "I don't have an answer for this Luna and Tom. Mayber there is no correct answer when you face off against such people. Dumbledore he wishes no one to fight, but the do we roll over for them? Let them kill who they want?"

She shakes her head and we add, "Kill the witches and wizards he gives to them you mean? He might believe himself when he talks about the 'greater good' but I think he could be just as bad as Voldemort or just as bad as we are."

I almost chuckle Fluer doesn't know, Dumbledore surely doesn't know, Voldemort doesn't know, Luna and I don't know the right answers here. We hold Fluer close and say, "Maybe there are no 'right' answers. Maybe we have to do bad things sometimes just like everyone else. One thing is for sure though if there is a war going on then I plan to win it and live a free person. Live to free and happy with you Fluer and if I have to go through Voldemort and his people to do that then so be it."

The kiss after that was terribly hot. Fluer was all over us her hands touching her body close we were so hot and there was soft skin and tender flesh rubbing against us. "What are you doing!"

We stopped and I looked up to see Professor McGonagall. "Fluer Dellacour! I'll have you know that Luna is only fifteen years old and a girl as well. Though I suppose you know both of these things quite well young lady!"

Fluer pulled a hand out from under our bra and the other from our pants even as we did the same. The professor was looking down on us and saying, "And you Luna, you know your desires and should be old enough to recognize when you need an escort to keep such improper things from happening in public! That will be twenty points from Ravenclaw and your Hogsmeade priveledges will be revoked."

"No wait! Please Professor we 'ardly ever see each other." Fluer pleaded with the elderly Scottish woman.

Professor McGonagall sniffed and then said, "Very well, but from now on you two will only meet in the company of others. I will not have Hogwart's reputation sullied by saying our students are doing inappropriate things in Hogsmeade meadows."

Fluer and we both nodded and our sheepish reply was, "Yes ma'm"

"Good, now come along Luna and I will escort you back to Hogwarts."

She began moving off and we looked at Fluer. The French witch was disheveled and red from embarrassment. We broke out laughing and she did as well. Somehow we managed to get out, "Goodbye Fluer," even as we hurried after Professor McGonagall.

"Good bye Luna." Fluer managed to get out between her own chuckles.

McGonagall was setting a pretty fast pace. "In all my years I have never . . . boys and girls in the closets yes, but two girls and in the Hogsmeade meadows . . . well I just never . . ."

She mostly conversed to herself on the same exact topic all the way to our dorm room where she deposited us with a stern warning not to depart until morning. Luna and I found it funny for a long period of time after that. Besides, for all of the deep conversation about killing and morality it was nice to think that in some ways Fluer and Luna were still just teenage girls getting into trouble. Make that Fluer, Luna and I were.

Geeky Notes:

Rose petals are indeed edible. They are actually pretty tasty and I like to candy them and add them to my salads after I get some too.

A simple science experiment is sometimes to add 100 grams of sodium to a .1 meter cubed vessel. This will result in 530 Milibars or 7Psi of pressure being released. Assuming that Fred and George designed their swamp to affect a 40 meter cubed area that would result in 212,000 Milibars or 2,800Psi of pressure. Not to mention the brief moment of burning flames . . .

The Killing curse plus Uranium, I have no bloody idea what would happen, but I certainly wouldn't want to try it either. Anyone stupid enough to test that one would deserve the result they got.

5 square Centimeters of pure Plutonium would be just enough to cause a runaway fission reaction. Well at least from my cursory remembrance from my Nuclear Physics class back in College. I certainly could have made an error.


	10. Chapter 9

By Tuesday Minister Fudge had narrowly lost a vote of No Confidence due to the attack on the Ministry. A new minister would be voted in and we wondered if he would be any more useful? 

In Potions class Luna and I stared at Severus Snape. Somehow he and his vile master have escaped from the explosion. Well, more appropriately they hadn’t been on the scene. Was it possible they had made last minute changes in their plans? It sure seemed like they had.

That night we pulled out our third video camera. It had been tested now and maybe the same trick would work a second time? The next morning in the great hall we levitated the miniature device on to Snape. Moments later it unshrank and fell to the ground in a pile of plastic and filthy smoke. Snape looked around the hall, but his gaze didn’t seem to light on anyone as the culprit. Still, it was annoying that the man was actually more intelligent than he looked.

Later that night Luna and I were busy making polyjuice potion using the left over bits of Bellatrix Lestrange. We also taught a D.A. class and worked with Fred and George that week. An owl delivery to Fluer sent her one of a pair of linked mirrors and we were able to communicate.

“I’ve made the polyjuice, but how will you know if any item in her vault is a Horcrux?”

Fluer shrugged, “I do not know? Maybe a Horcrux detector?”

Hmm it wasn’t quite the same as a dark mark, but “Okay let me think about that. Maybe we can make you one.”

“Okay and we will meet in Hogsmeade?” 

“Harry and Hermione have offered to chaperone for us.” We chuckled at that. “So we’ll have to be good.”

“Luna you should just take your N.E.W.T exams, be done with the charade and do what you wish.” 

“Tempting Fluer, very tempting, let me think about that too.”

“Okay Luna, I love you and goodnight.”

“Love you too Fluer, and goodnight.” We shut the mirror and thought more about it. At this point Hogwarts was hindering our fight. Hermione and Harry were together and I wasn’t staying here just to be with her anymore. 

Speaking of Hermione she took time to pull us aside the next morning, “I wanted to thank you again for telling me about Harry. I don’t think either of us would have realized without you.”

Great let’s add matchmaker to our skill list shall we? Perhaps not. “It’s not a problem Hermione and I should thank the two of you for agreeing to chaperone for Fluer and I this year.”

Hermione chuckled, “You two are just as much chaperone’s for Harry and I. Sometimes I just want to snog him silly. Those lovely green eyes and his cute messed up brown hair.” 

Wow is that what we sound like when we talk about Fluer? It would be almost enough to make someone ill. “Well you didn’t just drag me off to chat about our respective significant other did you?”

She shook her head, “No, I was thinking maybe we ought to shut down the D.A. now that fewer and fewer people are coming. We could just go back to our normal study sessions?”

“That’s probably a good idea. The school year is winding down and the Defense against the Dark Arts class seems to be going well. Do you have any plans for summer?” It was nice to talk with Hermione now as just friends. No more pain or heartache, just two friends with one who was perhaps attracted to the other a bit.

“My parents want to go to Australia again.” She shook her head, “I was thinking that now that Minister Scrimgeour pardoned Sirius I might stay in the Black Manor.”

Luna spoke up there and said, “You do know the anti-fertility charm right Hermione?”

She turned an extraordinarily bright red color. “Luna!” 

It was a good point actually Hermione and Harry were sixteen and clearly besotted with each other. Harry’s godfather Sirius certainly didn’t seem like the sort who would chaperone them all that much. “I don’t mean to embarrass you Hermione, but it is somewhat important with you and Harry unlike Fluer and myself.”

“You’ve?” She gaped at us almost stunned.

It seemed it was our turn to blush, “Just in fantasies, but I expect we’ll manage something this summer.”  
Maybe when we weren’t trying to track down Voldemort and those last two damned Horcruxes that is. 

Hermione said, “Well in any case I know it and we’d best get to our next class.”

Maybe it was time to talk with Fred and George about our shop. We wandered over to find the two boys and started saying, “I think we need a corner shop.”

“We were thinking that exact same thing. This will probably be our last year here. Even with Umbridge gone this isn’t what we want to do anymore and we’ve got tons from our Owl orders. We can open up Lovegood and Weasley’s in Diagon Alley.” We nodded to them at that.

More and more it seemed like taking an early graduation was the best thing to do. In the meantime though, Luna and I needed to work on some sort of Horcrux finder. We still had a vial of our own virgin’s blood though so taking a shortcut with a blood ritual wasn’t exactly a bad idea. We went to the room of Requirement thinking about Horcruxes and wouldn’t you know that stupid Diadem was still sitting on the floor.

It was somewhat broken and busted from the killing curse, but looking at it now with a clearer mind it seemed to be something very important once. In fact there was writing etched into it, “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.” 

Suddenly Luna and I realized that it wasn’t just a random item and neither was the locket. This was Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem and the necklace must have been Salazar Slytherin’s. Did that mean Helga Hufflepuff’s cup was out there somewhere? Then again the last Horcrux couldn’t be Gryffindor’s sword since we’d seen Harry use that on the Basilisk. So did that mean Voldemort found the cup or not?

Honestly Luna and I weren’t sure, but this diadem was suddenly a lot more powerful. If we could figure out how it worked that is. The biggest problem in doing that though was the fact that it was mostly destroyed. 

The idea Luna and I had later came in a dream, or maybe it was a bit of insanity. What we ended up doing was bringing the Diadem to our house on Sunday after the Hogsmeade weekend. Professor McGonagall gave us permission to use her Floo to ‘pick up important items from our father’ and we picked up the Resurrection stone. With that in hand we took the diadem and the vial of our blood to the Room of Requirement and resurrected it. Well, not exactly, but even if the crown didn’t give the wearer wisdom it would give the wearer knowledge. More specifically knowledge about where anything they thought of was located.

We waited until the next Hogsmeade weekend to hand the diadem off to Fluer along with the polyjuice potions. She left to Gringotts and Luna and I sat with Harry and Hermione. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

“What is she doing Luna?” Harry asked.

Oh right we hadn’t clued them in. “Something important for The Order. She couldn’t say since I’m too young to know.”

“Well I guess they are just trying to keep us safe.” That was Hermione. She was entirely right except it wasn’t The Order trying to keep her and Harry safe right now.

“I know I just worry about her.” Was she okay, would the goblins figure it out? Maybe we should have gone with her. 

The conversation between the three of us proceeded along the same lines until we excused ourselves to give Harry and Hermione some time to themselves. Mostly we sat nearby and stared off in the direction of Gringotts while the two of them acted like love sick teenagers, which was basically okay because that’s what they were.

The day ended and we sat in our dorm room sitting on our bed staring at our paired mirror in a vain attempt to make the damned thing sound. By the time it did sound we dropped it in surprise. Picking it up again we hesitantly opened it and looked at the person using it. It was Fluer! “Fluer! Oh thank everything that you’re all right!”

Well we certainly sounded much like a fool in love. Fluer smiled back from her side of the mirror and said, “It was actually very easy. We arrived as Bellatrix and asked to see our vault. The goblin took us down and when we went through the magic cancelling area the Polyjuice went away. For a second the goblin blinked and looked at us in the muggle makeup and such then turned aside. I sipped another drink of Polyjuice and with the near discovery behind us we went into the vault. 

“Inside I used the diadem you gave us and found a golden cup. One killing curse later and I have destroyed it. So, after that, I exited the vault, told the goblin that everything is order, and then went back up to the main Gringott’s level. Once outside the bank I used a portkey and was at my apartment.”

We breathed a deep sigh of relief. That could have gone wrong in so many ways, but with some makeup and knowledge Fluer was able to go in, destroy the item, and leave without anyone the wiser. The best part of all would be that even if anything was detected later Fluer hadn’t stolen a thing and I was willing to bet the goblins wouldn’t want it known that they had been holding onto such a dark artifact. “That’s wonderful Fluer!”

She giggled adorably then spoke saying, “Well if anyone ever asks I can say I love you so much I would kill for you.”

I certainly hoped she wouldn’t say it, but the look on her face was quite serious and powerful. Plus, what she had said was true she literally had killed for us. We swallowed deep as the impact hit us and she smiled on the other side of the mirror. “My love does that disturb you?”

“No, no it’s just . . . I . . . we’ve never had anyone feel that way about us. I mean I know you’ve said it, but . . .” Well weren’t we once again filled with communications skill.

Fluer giggled again and we so wanted to put our lips to hers and kiss her right then. “I had best let you get to bed Luna, but first something to remember when you sleep yes?”

She set her mirror on something and stepped back. Slowly more and more of her came into view and she was completely and utterly naked! I can’t really say what it would have been liked if I were male, I left that part of myself back in 1942 and even then had never had what could be termed sexual thoughts. For Luna and for being a female though seeing her was like a pulse right between our legs a deep ache even as our nipples became hard and almost painful. She bent over to give us a view of her breasts swaying and blew us a kiss, “Goodnight Luna, goodnight Tom my loves. Think of me yes?”

She was gone, but the memory of her was imprinted on the back of our eyelids. There was no relief from that image except for our own fingers in the dark of the night and even then, even after we had done what needed to be done with ourselves there was still the lingering image that no amount of personal touching could relieve.

By the morning we were feeling better, but in so many ways the school year could not end fast enough. In fact we were determined to schedule ourselves for N.E.W.T. exams at the ministry and go ahead into business with Fred and George once it was done. 

The school year seemed to drag along and our weekends with Fluer, Harry, and Hermione were an exercise in restrained teenage hormones. That is until Snape held us up in potions class again, “Miss Lovegood a word with you.”

We stopped and he gestured towards his office. We went in and sat down, “I was thinking I would go to the headmaster with this when it happened, but then I started watching you.”

He gestured at the broken video camera and we looked at him rather innocently. “Don’t bother with the gazes of indifference. I am not a stupid man and I have looked into you and your past Miss Lovegood. There is not another student in this institution’s history that was as capable as you were in your second year. Your skill improved more than a hundredfold from summer into the school year did you know that?”

“Honestly I hadn’t taken the time to examine it sir. I did a lot of studying that summer.” It was a poor excuse indeed and he knew it.

“Don’t play games Lovegood. I know Harry Potter destroyed a Horcrux, I know that someone destroyed a Horcrux in Salazar Slytherin’s locket and it wasn’t Rubeus Black. Someone also went to the hall of prophecies and killed twelve death eaters did it in one gigantic explosion. Do you see what I’m getting at?” 

He sneered at us, but we didn’t flinch or react. “No sir.” 

“Come now Miss Lovegood. I knew about that attack, the Dark Lord knew, the Deatheaters knew, and Harry Potter knew. You know who is missing from that list? You are Miss Lovegood. You and this camera or one much like it.” 

Well he was quite intelligent even if he was an utter arse wipe wasn’t he? “I believe you may have been attacked by Heliopaths sir. That sort of story is one they would enjoy planting since it is full of things that are utterly unprovable.”

Even as we gave him our distinctive airy smile he shouted, “Merlin girl you’d almost have me believe that! I suspect if I were to read your mind that’s exactly what I would see. But I know better, I know you are Voldemort reborn just as much as my master is. The thing I don’t understand is why?”

“I’m sure I don’t understand you sir.” He rolled his eyes.

The he clasped the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Why didn’t you summon them? Why are you killing them? What is your plan?”

“Well sir I can’t imagine what the Dark Lord’s plan is, but my own plan is to take my N.E.W.Ts at the end of this year and open a shop with Fred and George Weasley. Lovegood and Weasley’s is what we’re calling it now.” Even if he did think he knew anything there was no reason to let him be entirely sure now was there?

“Oh just get out Lovegood.”

We departed although we would be in that office again soon afterward. This time Snape looked at us and said,”Harry’s scar is faded from when he first arrived at school. In fact it was brighter red in his second year and at the end of that year it faded. The Dark Lord was never in contact with Harry Potter was he?”

“I’m sure I couldn’t say sir. I’m just a student not a genius on what the Dark Lord does and does not do.” We smiled at him and batted our eyes innocently. He turned a nice shade of angry red.

“You planted a camera on me. I know it for sure now. Harry Potter must have been a Horcrux and you destroyed that and the Locket when you visited the Black Manor. How many are left? Where are they?” 

I do believe he was rather pissed off right now, but I wasn’t going to tell him anything. “I tried to tell The Dark Lord about you, but he scoffed. He said the prophecy didn’t mention you at all. Then again maybe the second part did hmm? None of us knows what it said and you conveniently blew it up didn’t you?”

I almost admired him for his paranoia. “Maybe Dumbledore did sir? I certainly couldn’t have done anything like that.”

“No the man abhors such straight up violence. The only person dark enough to wipe our twelve people in one explosion would be the Dark Lord himself or someone just like him.” He stared at us perhaps judging our countenance.

We looked back and then gave a light little sneeze into our elbow. “Feathery fillyflies today they really bring out my allergy to paranoid delusions.” 

“Don’t joke with me! Do you even realize how angry he is? What he has planned? You foolish foolish girl you’ve turned everything upside down and didn’t even think what that would mean.” We look at him and yawn a bit. 

“Oh just get out of my sight!”

We left Snape’s office and went on to other things. More work on muggle things along with plans for sellable items in the shop. Weeks had gone by and it was almost the very end of the year when the wards around our bed were assaulted. We woke up and tossed a stunner one wizard went down, but the other nine continued to attack.

Another stunner hit a shield, but our transfiguration of the floor beneath a wizard into sulfuric acid worked well enough. The wards around our bed fell entirely and we tried to do an internal Hogwarts apparition only to hit an anti-apparition ward. Eight spells came our way and we dodged, and shielded, but there wasn’t much room. 

So the bed exploded as we hit it with a blasting curse and the debris caught the rest of the stunners. We immediately ran through the crashing pieces of our own bed and slid under a witch’s robe. The group turned and started casting again even as we pulled out our Mirror. Fluer answered it even as we were concentrating on a transfiguration spell to turn the floor into Nitrous Oxide.

Some of them were smart enough to pull up bubblehead charms even as they were casting stunners. Honestly I hadn’t expected to be attacked by that many people in the confines of Hogwarts itself and it was late at night. Perhaps it was foolish or just not paranoid enough on my part. Either way there were still six of them, but that didn’t seem like it would be a problem as we cast a cutting curse, transfigured the ground again, and dodged at the same time. 

Make that five of them left as one is now busy closing the wound in their carotid artery. I smile seeing victory at hand even as Cho Chang comes back from the bathroom and one of them summons her in front of the group even as the rest continue firing stunners at me. A wand is to her throat and a voice says, “Stop!”

Luna and I pause looking at the woman I think she’s a Carrow, but I can’t recall her first name. She’s holding Cho Chang right at the tip of her wand and looking at us. “Drop your wand or I blow her head off. I can do it before you hit me with a disarm girl.” 

Five of them left with the other five beginning to recover. So let’s do a little misdirection yes? We transfigure our bra into a stick and toss it on the ground even as I shove our wand into our pajama pants. “It’s dropped, now let her go.”

She summons the ‘wand’ and I’m almost amazed that the spell works, but then I remember it’s all about intention. If she thinks the stick is a wand and uses the Acio then she’ll get the stick. Even as the fake wand is being summoned she casts a blasting hex behind us. They’d been using stunners before, so I wasn’t expecting that.

We’re tossed forward by the explosion, but we’re already drawing our wand and blocking stunners even as we’re flying in the air. We try to land on our feet, but there’s no way to do it. We land in something very sticky even as we’re tossing our own blasting hex into the group of wizards. They go flying, but we can’t move out of the way as a last stunner comes in from the Carrow woman.

I don’t hear or see anything that happens after that until we start coming around. Even as we woke up I resolved to quit Hogwarts for sure after that and live under my own wards. Well if I ever got out of this alive. That was the thought that hit me even as we slammed into the floor. That was quite painful. We looked up at the person who had done it and recognized Gregory Goyle Junior. “That was for me da!”

We attempted to look through our robe, but realized we were in fact in our underclothes. That would be white cotton panties sans bra due to the stick transfiguration earlier. Clearly the panties did not have a single item we might use to defend ourselves. Yet another personal note for the future: add pockets to our underwear and include defensive items in there. 

A rather large beefy arm picked us up and flung us to the floor again. Then the solid weight of a male sat on us as hands began to choke us. Stars filled our vision and our thoughts went to Fluer even as we heard, “Kill . . . you . . . bitch.”

Those were the last words we heard and there was darkness. Then a splash of freezing water hit us and we were looking at Snape. “I thought we might have this conversation here. You see plans changed radically after so many deatheaters were killed. I was ordered to help get some people into Hogwarts and they would capture Harry Potter and bring him here.”

Well crap Harry was here too. The boy was actually my friend now and how was I supposed to rescue him when I was basically naked here? I didn’t have an answer for that question. Snape must have seen fear because he smirked, “It didn’t quite work out you know. Somehow the Gryffindor’s were ready for the attack and twelve Deatheaters were captured.”

We stared at the man now wondering what the hell he wanted. “Yes, I told the Order about the attempt on Harry. I didn’t mention you though and I didn’t tell the Dark Lord yet either. I told ten others that the dark lord wanted you though. Some of them were students with reason to hate you and others were just easily led.”

“Why?” We looked at him and asked that question wanting to know the answer.

“Well you never answered my questions did you? Now don’t worry about mistreatment I had to memory erase everyone who went to get you? I went through a lot of trouble for this girl, so you’d best answer my questions.” Well this was somewhat unexpected.

“Okay, what do you want to know sir?” Yes I was scared. He was a Deatheater and he could kill us at any time. Best thing to do now though was keep him talking so we could think.

“Why? Why didn’t you summon the deatheaters after taking over the girl?” 

“I didn’t want to really. You see I met Draco Malfoy first thing when I was in her. His pleasing personality made me rethink what it was to be a Pureblood.” That’s how we started.

He stared at us and said, “Come now that’s no better than your other lies. You don’t expect me to believe that Draco Malfoy’s poor behavior changed you?”

We shrugged and I really wished we had just one rocket, an exploding extendable eye, hell even Bertie Bott’s every flavor bean would be better than nothing. “That and Luna Lovegood she was my friend.”

He laughed, “Friend, the Dark Lord has no friends. You killed her the moment you left the diary. Killed her and tricked everyone into thinking Harry Potter killed you. In the meantime you stayed as Luna Lovegood. Why? For what purpose?”

For a brief moment I wondered once again if Luna was just a figment of my mind. The moment was short lived, but Snape had made me doubt. He was staring at us now with his beady eyes and ugly hook of a nose. “Tell me!”

Well at least he had decent mouth hygiene. There was a minor plus as he yelled into our face. “If you won’t believe the truth and you don’t believe a lie just what should I say?”

He paced back and forth looking at us angrily as he did. “I can’t keep you secret forever girl. Sooner or later the Dark Lord will find out and then he’ll come down here and kill you himself or have his familiar come down here and eat you. Is that what you want?”

“Why did you become a double agent?” It might seem a strange question to ask, but this man was clearly Deatheater material. What made him switch sides?

He slapped us across the face, “Don’t pretend you don’t know! Don’t pretend that you didn’t kill her? I begged you to spare her life and you refused. I had to switch sides in a forlorn hope that somehow I could save Lilly damn you!”

Lilly? Where had we heard that name before? Oh yes Lilly Potter the wife of James Potter and mother of Harry. By the very gods we were living in some warped Greek tragedy here. Snape was an extra piece on the board and he’s on Voldemort’s side. Did Albus need a turn coat? Could that old bastard have been as capable as I am imagining? Maybe he could. “You know it was Albus’ fault don’t you?”

Whatever extra rage filled rant he might have wanted to vent slid out of him in an exhaled breath, “What?”

“You want the truth, then fine. The truth is that I’m pretty sure Albus trained Lilly Potter in the blood ritual that saved her son. The truth is that Albus planned the entire thing just to kill Voldemort and gain him some extra pawns.” We stared at him as we finished.

“That can’t be . . .” he stops himself. “No, no it could be true. But, what does it have to do with you and Luna Lovegood.”

Well now for the convincing lie, “He stopped me with a child when I was an adult. There was no strategy for winning without getting rid of Dumbledore and the man is one of the most powerful wizards in Britain.”

Snape stared at us and maybe he believed it. “So why haven’t you killed him yet? It’s been four years? What have you been waiting for?”

“My other soul piece had other plans. It decided to reactivate the Deatheaters and repeat the past. I need to kill it first.” He pondered that response.

He slapped us across the face. It was quite painful then his expression became amazingly cruel. “I don’t need you girl and I’ve always wanted to do this. Crucio!”

Pain fired in all of my nerve endings, pain like I had never experienced before. It was a torrent of unimaginable pain. Then it stopped we were on the ground curled in a small ball. “How far the mighty Dark Lord has fallen.”

He spat on us and then the pain was back. We begged and pleaded with him I think. We went our underpants it was so bad and it just kept coming. After an unknown time it ended again. Snape looked no more worn out than when we had begun. Luna’s hair was wet in our eyes dangling stringily as we slowly knelt up and looked at the man. We were weaker than a kitten, but a bitter dark loathing for the man was held close to our heart. “How many Horcruxes are there?”

We shook our head and he pointed the wand. “You want to tell me Miss Lovegood or there will be more. You don’t want more do you?”

No, I didn’t. Luna wasn’t even with me now lost to unconsciousness or worse it was just me staring at him and desperately hoping he wouldn’t torture me again. “One just one left. I don’t know what it is in.”

He nodded almost politely. “One plus yourself and the other that gained life making a total of three pieces of soul still left to destroy?”

I nodded trying to fix Luna’s hair some and dragging our body away from the pool of urine I had been laying in. Every movement was agony and yet moving to a cleaner spot on the floor felt nice, like somehow I was protecting Luna’s dignity and my own. “Well the weekend is over and I have to get back to classes, but I think I’ll leave you here with someone to watch over you.”

I blinked our eyes, “Thought you said you erased their memories. You said I’d be safe if I answered you?”

“Did I? Well perhaps I did at that, but you know Amycus Carrow has a fondness for young girls. Did you know that? Well you must since you recruited him. Well in any case he’ll be here with you as a little reward from the Dark Lord. Now as horrible as it all might be you might not want to run anywhere since the other Dark Lord is still here. Then again, maybe by the time Amycus is through with you you’ll be begging for death?” He smirked and departed the room.

I went through all that torture and all those answers for nothing? He was leaving us in here. I shivered how long had we been down here? Snape had said it was the end of the weekend what day was it when we had gone to bed? I couldn’t remember anymore and Luna was far, far away. I didn’t begrudge her that, she didn’t deserve this torture and I hoped she could keep herself safe there in a corner of our mind. 

The door opened and Amycus Carrow stepped through. Gods he was huge with a face like a troll and a short tuft of black hair on his head. Fear trilled through me as he spoke providing a sudden wash of adrenaline based energy. “Snape’s not suh a bad guy letting me ‘ave you. Imperio!”

Really? The idiot was using the Imperius didn’t Snape tell him anything? Well I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and the spell wafted over us and showed us what he wanted us to do. This was, I think, my one chance to escape. He had a wand on him, so all I needed to do was get it from him. I licked our lips and smiled as best I could while covering our naked breasts with one arm. “Oh my . . . you caught me changing. . .”

I allow the spell to give us the blush he’s looking for and put a hand over the white panties and curl up some as if attempting to prevent him from seeing me. He laughs a stupid sort of laugh, “You knowin ya want it girly.”

I curl up more into the corner, “Oh please sir, I’m just an innocent schoolgirl.”

He removes his robe and pulls down his pants. I can’t even describe the stench that wafts from him or the crooked shaft of pulsing meat he has below his waist. “Lookee here girly.”

The Imperius guides me as I look at him and try not to retch. “Oh wow you’re so big! I’ve never seen one like that before.”

“Yeah you know you’re wantin it missy.” He grins big and ugly.

I almost roll my eyes at him, “Oh you. I’ve just been dreaming of such a big man to find me like this.” I mentally roll my eyes and take my arm away from our naked breasts for him to see. His eyes get wide even as we move to him, taking our panties and shimmying them down our legs.

I move right to him and he’s just grinning like a stupid idiot. Once I am directly in front of him I pull out of the Imperious with hardly an extra thought. Then I kick him as hard as I can right between his legs. “Oof!”

He bent down to clutch at that sensitive part of his anatomy and I grabbed his wand. With a wand in my hand I hit him with two cutting curses directed at that same part of his anatomy I kicked and then one to his throat. This giant pile of scum wouldn’t ever do anything to another girl again. 

I would have apparated, but the place was full of wards against it and portkeys. Since that wasn’t an option I disillusioned myself and went to the door. Went rather slowly, that is, since my body was telling me it was still in immense pain from the torture Snape had provided. Once at the door I opened it and peeked outside. There was nothing magical except some incredibly powerful wards. 

I wandered around for a long time lost in a maze of endless hall. If my mind hadn’t been so tired I might have recognized it as a magical effect, but I didn’t. I just walked and walked with my left hand always on a wall. I tripped on my feet and the wall was gone. 

Now I was in some sort of underground throne room. There on the throne was the creature. Voldemort himself and he was looking right at me. “Who are you?”

He was talking and talking was very good. I silently began to transfigure the ground under the chair into trinitopropane commonly known as Nitroglycerin. I had to be slow and use a bare trickle of magic though so conversation was good. “Luna Lovegood.”

He chuckled, “A mere slip of a girl and a naked one at that. How could you possibly challenge the likes of me?”

Well he certainly had arrogance down to a science didn’t he? “I can’t sir. I was trapped here by Snape.”

“Thought he could get in good by capturing you did he.” The thing rubbed its chin and gestured to us. “Come closer child and tell me why I should let you live.”

I moved closer to him and felt the utter horror descend on me. Diseased, twisted, he was missing a nose and looked like a snake now, but even worse was the sense of utter wrongness. Like he was alien to life itself an anathema to anything I might begin to enjoy. He spoke as we approached, “I feel something though. Do you feel it too Lovegood?”

I look at him and say, “Do you want to know what I feel? Truly?”

He smiles thinking that the way I shiver is due to fear of him and not my attempt at concentrating on the spell. “Yes, little girl tell me how you feel.”

“I feel ashamed; every minute that you exist I feel shame that I might have become you. I feel disgust, disgust that any part of me could possibly enjoy what you enjoy. I feel fear, fear that somehow I might actually become you. You disgusting loathsome pile of shit!” He looks aghast as if no one has ever spoken to him like this before. He is so surprised by my words that he can’t even curse me.

Then he sits up tall and stares down at us. “You dare! You dare to insult Lord Voldemort!”

“I was sixteen and stupid damn it. It was almost like a lark. Set the basilisk free then put it back away. Live forever by murdering a muggle cow. Merlin, how could it all turn into this? Turn into you?” I shouted back at him. How I hated him, how I hated what he became and what some piece of my soul was. 

“Who are you? Tell me who you are?” Yeah few people know that sort of thing do they?

I look into his slitted snake eyes, “I’m Tom Marvolo Riddle and you. You’re just a disgusting piece of filth that never deserved to live.”

He stood to cast, but a single flame from my wand wafted under his throne. I shielded as best I could, but the explosion was incredible. It hurled me up through the air and back across the chamber. I felt the crunch of pain as my shoulder slammed into something and then there was another sort of crack and pain shot through my leg. I lost consciousness again there.

I woke again still on my own. I was bleeding from my leg and the white of the bone was showing. Somehow I found some reserves to stop the bleeding. Then I slowly crawled to a wall and used it to get myself on my feet. The throne room was a mess or rubble with the remains of Voldemort strewn across it like a bloody sort of final signature with his head making a sort of period at the end.

I would like to say I tested the wards, but in all honesty I entirely forgot. I just wanted to go and there was a nice set of stairs beyond the throne. I thought of trying to transfigure a stick and cloth to wrap my leg, and then forgot about the idea. I just moved to the stairs and crawled up them it must have been a truly pathetic sight indeed, but there I was making my way up like a half dead muggle.

Wherever I was it was dark, warm and dark. That was nice and I was soo sleepy. I closed my eyes and sleep took over. I woke up some indeterminate time later to a voice speaking parsel tongue, “Feel like master, but smell wrong.”

I opened my eyes, no we opened our eyes. Luna was back now, but it was pitch black. We added some light and saw a huge snake staring at us in the dark. Also, under the lingering pain, I felt that sick nauseous feeling in my gut. “Who are you that feellssss like master in Nagini’sss lair?”

I had no energy for this; we pointed our wand and couldn’t even think of a spell. Clearly I wanted to cast the killing curse or a blasting hex, but it all fell out of my head. The giant snake saw our move as an attack anyway though and she struck.

There was a new rip of pain in our shoulder and poison began to course through our system. The large snake curls around us and we can’t move. A voice whispers to me, “Join me, join your true self. Come with me.”

The Horcrux it must be the Horcrux singing its foul song of death and mayhem. Too late for that though because I think we’re going to die here. Fuzzy stars come to our vision and blackness then there is a strange rumbling explosion perhaps a blasting hex. The pressure releases and then a green killing curse slams into the snake just past where we are. 

The last Horcrux dies and I can’t even hear what it said or maybe I don’t remember. It doesn’t matter because Fluer is holding us in her arms. It’s too late though I know it for sure; the poison courses through us and our eyes are so terribly heavy. “Luna! No! Please don’t go. Please my angel stay with me.”

I reach out to her, my hand touches her face and I smile. “I beat him Fluer and I’m not him. Whatever part of my soul that was him is gone. I think its okay now it’s okay . . . “

I feel her tears on my fingers and then her lips pressed against my own and that is the end. There can’t possibly be more and yet somehow there is. 

Luna and I sit next to each other at a bus depot. It’s a bit strange because I’m back in my old body and we’re not right in each other’s heads hearing each other’s thoughts. There are other people here with us too. Luna’s mother sits next to her and gently kisses her cheek, “You did so well Luna. I am soo very proud of you. Never forget that my dear. I love you with all of my heart and soul.”

She steps away and a mousy sort of witch nervously looks over. I wave to her and she comes close. I recognize her when she takes my hand. “Tom, my little Tom oh how you have grown. I was so worried about you Tom. What you did to yourself it was so horrible and it was my entire fault. I’m so sorry my boy.”

I pull her close and hug her to me. “It’s okay mother, I had my own part in everything too. It can’t be your entire fault and I’m sorry too. Sorry that I could never love you until now.”

My mother steps away and stands with Luna’s mother. The two ladies smile at each other and then look back at us. A friendly man in a bus conductor’s outfit comes over to us now. “Tickets?”

I hold up half of a ticket and Luna the other half. He shakes his head and says, “Looks like you two have a choice here that few ever get. A half ticket and you can ride with me or I can send you back home. Next time you come though you’ll each have a whole ticket you hear?”

Luna smiles at him, “I think I understand sir. We’ll have to stay together though if we go back home right?”

He shrugs and says, “You two look a might inseparable to me anyhow. Your choice though and best make it quick I’ve got more stops to make tonight you know.”

We don’t even have to confer between us. We just look at him and say, “Take us back home please.”

There is no sound and no darkness just a sudden jarring. Then we hear, “She’s dead child. I’m so sorry, I never imagined such a young girl would put herself against the Dark Lord and win.”

Fluer screams, “Your fault Dumbledore! You let it happen! She was taken in your school and fought her way to the Dark Lord after she was captured. Damn it! I won’t let her go. I won’t! She can’t be . . . oh please god!”

A voice near me calls out, “She moved! Nurse Pomphrey! Come take a look quickly!” 

Hermione, she was a good friend and sharp as a tack. The nurse comes, “I don’t see how Hermione she was dead and I mean really dead. . .” she gasps and I feel someone near me doing a diagnostic with their wand.

“Alive? She can’t be, but it’s true.” The nurse sounds confused and there is the sound of rushing feet.

Softness presses into us and lips kiss our cheeks. “Oh Luna, angel thank you oh thank you for coming back to me.”

We manage to crack an eye open and give Fluer a half smile. “Love you Fluer.”

“Oh Luna, I love you too.” She squeals and hugs us and then we fall asleep. It is a long, peaceful sleep without dreams. 

When we wake we are much more refreshed and we are in a bedroom of the Black Manor. Sitting in a chair reading is Dumbledore himself. He tries to give us a grandfatherly smile and I wish he would just die. “Well young lady, you had quite the adventure.”

I look at him and sigh, “I’m taking my N.E.W.T this summer. I don’t think I want to see Hogwarts ever again.”

“Oh yes, understandable quite understandable my dear girl. I wonder though how did you destroy all of his Horcruxes?” He doesn’t even bother with Legillimency.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” We say even as I think about making sure he has a deadly accident this summer. 

“No I suppose you wouldn’t at that. I mean who could possibly know where all seven were and fix Harry’s scar? I would think only Voldemort himself could do that and he’s dead. Also, not quite in his nature is it?” I really wanted to strangle him right now. Just choke the life out of his old throat and watch him gasp for air.

“I guess it wouldn’t be sir. I’m not exactly an expert now.” Yeah he totally didn’t believe that anymore did he?

He stood and smiled at us, “Well who knows, maybe there’s a second chance for him somewhere. A second chance to live for the ‘greater good’” That was the last thing he said as he exited. I was so very determined to have him killed now. Of course, there was one other person who was a bit higher on my list and he didn’t visit.

Fluer, on the other hand, did visit. She helped us up and out of bed and then helped us to our own home. She stayed with Xenophilius and I helping out and nursing Luna and I back to health. Once we were healthy and well we paid a visit to Snape’s house, sadly he wasn’t home though. Dumbledore, of course, remained behind at Hogwarts during the summer. That was okay sooner or later one of them would be in a position where we could arrange an accident. 

In the meantime we did take our N.E.W.Ts and received Exceeds Expectations in Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defense against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Herbology. 

We continued working on our articles for the Quibbler and in the shop with Fred and George even as Fluer basically moved into our home. She quit her job at Gringotts and helped out at the shop too.

Living with Fluer was very easy to do. We found out exactly what it was that our body needed and together with Fluer we accomplished orgasm. A single word that really just doesn’t have enough meaning behind it, pleasure, bliss, amazing none of these words can describe how it feels to be in your lover’s arms and achieve that perfect moment. To find it again and again until you fall asleep in each other’s arms exhausted.

Hermione and Harry continued their correspondence and friendship with us and went into careers with the Ministry. Harry is an Auror and Hermione works with the unspeakables. We didn’t keep touch with most of the others, but Hermione and Harry do talk about them sometimes. Ron married someone who we can’t recall and Ginny is a beater on the Hollyhead Harpies Quidditch team.

Hermione and Harry were married, but Fluer and I missed the ceremony since we were busy working at Cape Canaveral in Florida at the time. We’ve been working with the muggle space agency called NASA and plan to see my ideas come into play. Even if the magic involved has to be passed off as “Top Secret” technology. The Thom Riddle Lunar module will be ready to launch in 1998 and it will be a self-sustaining habitat for humans. On that habitat they will be building a ship capable of going to Mars. 

Dumbledore and Snape died in mysterious circumstances along with the last remaining Deatheaters. There are few leads in the investigation, but Harry does tell us sometimes that he has a lead. None of them ever seem to pan out though.

Fred and George married the Patil twins and they continue to work in our shop. These days young wizards and witches can talk to each other on a mirror/phone or watch something on their mirror/television just the same as muggles might. A revolution of new gimmicks and fads was spawned by fascinating shows that we basically just recorded from the muggles. It drove the remaining pure blood families crazy. Then we started working on recreating muggle gaming systems and computers. The wizarding world will never be the same.

I may die for real this time around, but with our work Luna, Fluer, and I will be immortalized in both the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. Although, every now and again I wonder what did that prophecy say anyway? Well it was probably pure dreck anyway. Who could possibly live their life worrying about a single prophecy when they have an entire universe to explore?

\---------------------------------------The End ---------------------------------------

 

……………..Neither can live while the other survives…………….

. . . Well maybe it’s the end . . .

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Notes: My apologies for any errors. If you let me know about something I’ll fix it. As it stands though this work is currently finished although I do have some other works planned for the future now that I’m back and writing again.

I don’t think I’ll go back to my older works, but who knows they are still there and someday the characters may call to me.

**Author's Note:**

> Figuring out exactly when Thom made his first Horcrux wasn't easy. I suspect I have it right, but I could be wrong. Assume that the cannon diverges there if you want.
> 
> In the original book "Chamber of Secrets" Ginny keeps the diary. I've made a change here in that Luna gave Ginny a first day present and Ginny returned the compliment with the first thing at hand e.g. the diary.
> 
> Other cannon divergences spawn from there.


End file.
